Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

An argument. What it was about, none of the others knew. Gangle had been the first to the table after the days adventure, ready to relax after managing to keep her comedy mask safe all day, but to her dismay Jax had followed right behind her. The others couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but Jax was clearly being his usual self. Before the rest of the gang could get close enough to the table to intervene in the argument taking place, it was brought to an immediate standstill.

Whap!

With a swift flick Gangle had smacked Jax across the side of his face with her ribbon hand. The rest of the circus members stopped in their tracks, an array shocked expressions upon most of their faces. Aside from Zooble throwing out a thumbs up, they were all flabbergasted; long accustomed to Gangle talking back to her rabbit bully at the absolute most, before always rolling over and giving in to whatever cruelty he was forcing on her and anyone else at that moment. It seemed even Gangle herself was shocked at how forcefully she had stood up for herself, holding her wrist with her other hand and looking at it, stunned, as if it had a mind of its own and she was worried it would lash out again. The collective stupor of the circus members was shaken away when Jax stood up from his looming position he had been holding over Gangle; from where they all stood they couldn’t see his face, but Gangle could.

And she looked terrified.

The lot of them quickly made their collective way to the table, Ragatha taking the lead, worried about the situation escalating further. But in (what seemed to be) the days theme of unusual actions, they were once again shocked as Jax stepped towards Gangle, then again, and then… past her, until finally just… walking away entirely. Gangle, who had been covering herself with her arms out of fear of retaliation, looked up to see no one but the others, before turning in her seat to see Jax walking into the residential hall and out of sight. Confusion overtaking her previous feelings of terror, Gangle turned to the others as they closed the gap between themselves and her.

“Are you alright, what in the world happened between the two of you?” Ragatha questioned.

“Yeah, did he say something before he walked away? I’ve seen Jax freak you out, we all have, but you looked more scared than I could remember seeing before.” Pomni interjected before Gangle could even start thinking how to respond.

“I don’t care what that jerk said or did, I wanna say good f-*cymbal crash*-in’ job standing up to him!” Zooble practically yelled over the other two, once more throwing out a thumbs up.

With the three of them crowding Gangle and continuing to question, ponder, and congratulate respectively, she found herself overwhelmed, unable to structure her thoughts, until.

“A lot just happened really quickly, maybe we should give Gangle a moment to catch her breath?” Kinger spoke from behind the crowd, immediately earning stares from all four of his circus mates, catching them off guard with one of his random moments of clarity.

“Oh, yes! Yes, you’re probably right, Kinger.” Ragatha responded.

“Right about what?” And there it went.

Equal parts embarrassed and guilty about potentially adding to Gangle’s discomfort, the three stepped back and patiently waited for the ribbon woman to put her head in order. No longer being bombarded with overlapping voices, Gangle was able to actually think; with a sigh and a few seconds of sitting in silence with her eyes closed, she was able to calm down enough to speak to her concerned circus mates.

“He didn’t really say anything that he doesn’t usually say when he’s being mean, he was all sarcastic about me being lucky and joking about how he would have to try harder next time to make the adventure interesting. But then he started joking about yesterday when he “accidentally” spilled water on one of my drawings out here, and then the day before that when he bumped me out of the air balloon basket we were in for the adventure that day. I guess I was still really on edge after today’s adventure, because it got to me a lot more than usual- with my comedy mask I can usually ignore him- but I guess I just… boiled over and lashed out.” Gangle explained to the others, a look of guilt on her face.

“Hey now, don’t you go feeling bad for that jerk. You gave him what he deserves!” Zooble was the first to speak up.

“While I would prefer if things didn’t turn to violence, I also can’t blame you for what you did, Gangle. Jax has always treated you as an easy target, so while it wasn’t the best way to handle things (in my opinion) I also agree you shouldn’t feel too guilty.” Ragatha spoke second, reassuring Gangle in her usual motherly tone.

“But what happened after you slapped him? He must of done something, you looked horrified!” Pomni reiterated her question as soon as Ragatha had finished talking.

“Oh… yeah. It’s kind of dumb, but all he did was touch his face where I had… hit him… and… smiled.” The other three looked at Gangle in confusion “I don’t know! it was just his usual grin or whatever, but after what had just happened- in the moment it- I got really creeped out. I expected him to get angry or yell or hit me back or something, but when he just… did nothing and stared at me with that big grin it- it scared me really bad.”

“Ugh, I don’t even want to know what might be going on in that weirdo’s head. Don’t think too hard about it, guys a freak, always has been, always will be.” Reasoned Zooble with a disgusted tone and a dismissive hand wave.

“That’s not… exactly the way I would put it,” Ragatha interjected “but Zooble is right again, if there’s one thing we can all agree on about Jax, it’s that he is predictably unpredictable.”

With nods of agreement from the rest of the group, the circus members settled in around the table and partook of their nightly simulated meal. Eating in silence as the rest of those around her chatted about the days adventure, making a noticeable effort to avoid mentioning a certain rabbit for her sake, Gangle found herself finally calming down. Her guilt had been assuaged by the rest of the gang and, even if she still wasn’t exactly proud of herself for resorting to physical violence, she began to even feel a bit of pride in finally standing up to Jax in a big way. Part of her was worried about whatever retaliation he most definitely was planning, but she took solace in the fact that she had proven to both him and herself she wasn’t a complete pushover. After a time, she realized that all of the day’s excitement had left her feeling exhausted, mentally at the very least, and so she ended up leaving the dining table much earlier than the others. With a smile and a wave, she walked down to the seemingly endless hallway of bedrooms. Despite her best efforts to not let Jax get to her, she couldn’t help but keep her eyes trained on his door up the hall, as if he would suddenly throw the door open and rush to attack her.

“Stop thinking about it, don’t let him get to you.” She mentally chastised herself as she reached behind her own mask and pulled out the key to her room. Where it was when it wasn’t back there, and how it appeared whenever she needed to lock or unlock her door was just another mystery of the circus, but sensing an opportunity to distract herself, she chose to ruminate on it. “Maybe the circus can tell when I'm near my door and makes it appear? Or maybe it’s the opposite, it’s always back there but I just can’t feel it when I'm away from my room? Wait… is that the opposite, or is that just the same thing with different…” Her musings had done their job in turning her thoughts away from today’s happenings, but as she shut the door behind her and turned the lights on in her room, they grinded to halt as she looked around.

Her room was utterly destroyed.

Furniture destroyed, shelves and drawers overturned, hand crafted figures shattered to pieces, and her drawings, her drawings! Sketchbooks with their every page ripped out, folders poured out over the floor, and all of them crumpled, torn, scribbled over, or otherwise ruined. She couldn’t even bring herself to cry, all she could do was stare at the destruction in utter shock and silence. Even if she hadn’t already been certain who had done this, she wouldn’t have had to think on the mystery for very long as suddenly a loud click sounded behind her as someone pressed the button in to the lock her door from the inside. Standing to the side of her door was Jax, her own intentionally distracting thoughts combined with the darkness of the room when she had entered had hid his presence.

“Hehehehe… whew, the look on your face… I tell yeah, made standing here in the dark for who knows how long all worth it.” His mocking laughter ringing in Gangle’s ears as she turned to look at him, the stunned horror plain on her face. “Aww, what’s with that look? What’s that old saying again, don’t give it if you can’t take it or something like that? Welp, seems like you couldn’t take, crybaby.” He stood from his lean against her wall and began stepping towards her. “And don’t you go thinking that this makes us even just yet.” Overwhelmed with emotion Gangle only came to her senses in time to feel Jax grab her face roughly around the edges. Looming over her, he began to squeeze with all the might he could muster in his hands. The pain left a ringing in whatever she had that could pass for ears, all she could feel was her mask… her face straining and cracking under the pressure of Jax’s hands. She didn’t know if she screamed, or if she even fought back at all, it was just a painful blur, as if he was ripping a tooth out of her mouth with pliers. Until finally her mask shattered to pieces and crumbled to the ground in shards. Dropping to her knees, the ringing in Gangle’s mind only grew louder, she could see Jax’s mouth move but she couldn’t hear anything.

The humiliation of her little gesture of defiance being met with such disproportionate cruelty, the agony of having her very happiness crushed in his hands, the sheer violation of one of the few things that brought her happiness in this digital nightmare now laying strew about her room in crumpled, shredded, ruined piles. She didn’t sob, or shout, but she could feel the tears silently flow down her face. Unconscious of her actions she lashed out once more, no thought beyond misery and anger, using the first thing she found within her grasp.

Thwup thwup thwup

The muted sound of liquid dripping onto the floor was all she could hear. As her erratic breathing slowed and her whirlwind of emotions steadied, she came back to the reality of where she was. And of what she had just done.

Her vision, once a blur of roaring emotions, cleared.

And in her hand, was a jagged shard of her comedy mask, black ichor staining the pointed tip.

In a panic she dropped the mask piece, her eyes trailing it to the ground as it clattered onto the floor with a thud, a deafening sound in the almost total silence of her room. Beside the piece of sharp ceramic was a small black puddle on the carpet, drops falling from above it. Unsure of what she had just done, but terrified of the possibilities, she drew her gaze upward, following the drops. She had hoped for anything else, even if she had no clue what else it could have been, but it was for naught. As she followed the droplets upward, her fears were proven correct. In front of her stood Jax, turned to the side, she couldn’t see his face but she didn’t need to, to realize what she had done.

The droplets were flowing from his face.

As if knowing she had finally noticed, Jax turned back to face her. His hand was on his cheek, a waterfall of black spreading down his face to his neck to the front of his clothes, his arm completely drenched in the “blood” that Gangle had drawn, the drops falling from his elbow as he stood and stared at her.

“OH- oh my god- I'm so- I didn’t realize- I'm sor-!” Gangle’s stammered and panicked apologies were interrupted by Jax thrusting his foot out faster than she could react to it, stomping the ribbons that made up her torso to the ground and pinning her, arms and all. He leaned forward over her, staring into her eyes, as he slowly peeled his hand from his wound, and once more his usual smug grin found its way onto his face.

The vicious gash Gangle had sliced into his cheek elongated his smile into an unnatural smirk, the ichor continued to wash down his front, droplets and globs, now unimpeded with his hand out of the way, fell from the loose flayed skin of his face onto the floor as well as Gangle herself. She could feel every drop that landed on her ribbons, it made her want to vomit. He stood there, staring and smiling in silence, until he brought his clean left hand to his face and, to Gangle’s sickened horror, brought his fingers up to the wound. Slowly he reached towards it, shoving his fingers into the gash, the facsimile of blood coating them quickly, but that seemingly wasn’t enough. He pushed harder, muffled groans and tears in his eyes giving away how excruciating his own actions were for him, digging his near entire hand into the vicious wound. All the while his smile never wavered, and he never broke eye contact with Gangle. Powerless under his foot holding her down and shocked into inaction by the horrific sight she was witnessing, all she could do was stare in terror. She wanted to scream, to yell for help, to fight back, to wake up from what must be a horrid nightmare, some small part of her even wished she would abstract just so this vile disgusting moment would be over, for her at least. But none of those things happened, all she did was stare and wallow in misery as Jax tortured himself above her. After what felt like a genuine eternity he pulled his hand from the gaping hole in his face, his gloves absolutely soaked in his “blood”. He dragged his fingers across his face, painting his smile with the ichor that stained them. He reached down towards Gangle, grabbing her face and dragging it up towards himself. It was finally enough to shock her from her fearful stupor.

“NO! WAIT PLEASE! I'M SORRY, PLEASE! SOMEONE, ANYONE, HELP ME PLEASE!” She pleaded and begged as Jax’s iron grip on her mask effortlessly dragged her face towards him. She didn’t know what would happen if her tragedy mask broke, but she was terrified that she was about to find out as Jax got closer and closer, his macabre face painting running and dripping onto her. Closer and closer still, until.

Mwah

With an exaggerated smack of his lips, Jax planted a bloody viscous kiss upon her forehead. Gangle could only shudder in disgust and fear as Jax released her, dropping her head to the ground, his wretched makeshift lipstick running down her face. She lay there, eyes and mouth clamped shut to hopefully spare them the running ichor, quietly sobbing to herself for what could have been days as far as she was concerned. Suddenly, she felt Jax’s foot lift from her torso and as soon as she was freed she rushed to wipe her face clean. The feeling of it on her hands was still awful, but nowhere near as bad as it being on her face. With her face clean she looked towards her door; Jax was still standing there, gory smile still upon his face. As she met his eyes he narrowed them, his deranged grin becoming devious and scheming as he leaned his head towards the door as if he was… listening for something? Realization rushed through Gangle’s mind, but so to did the fact that she couldn’t do anything to stop him.

“AHHHH! YOU FRIGGIN PSYCHO,” Jax screeched as he ripped the door open and flung himself into the hallway, the rest of the circus crew in the hall having just left the dining table “YOU LITTLE MANIAC! YOUR MASK AIN’T THE ONLY THING ABOUT YOU THAT’S CRACKED, FIRST YOU ROB ME THEN YOU TRY TO KILL ME?!”

“What in the world is- OH MY GOD, Jax what happened?!” Ragatha had ran ahead, always trying to be the first on the scene to deescalate. Her concern was only intensified when she got close enough to see Jax, utterly drenched in what she and the others recognized as their equivalent to blood.

“She happened!” Jax shot back, pointing accusingly at Gangle and uncovering his wound for all of them to see. Gasps and disgusted gags filled the hall as they all got an eyeful of his mutilated face.

“What are you talking about?” Zooble asked, the skepticism plain in their voice.

“I'm talking about HER, building blocks!” Jax threw his hand out again, pointing at Gangle as he sat himself against the wall across from her door. “She did this! …what, don’t believe me? Ask her yourself!”

Whispers of disbelief came from the crowd as they stepped in front of Jax and looked into Gangle’s room, gasps replacing the whispers as they took in the sights within. Gangle on her knees, her room destroyed, covered in “blood”, and most damningly of all, the jagged shard of her own mask, splattered in black, laying on the ground beside her.

“Gangle, just slow down, take some deep breaths and tell us what happened here, ok?” Ragatha spoke with a calm and measured voice, desperate to defuse whatever situation she and others had stumbled upon.

Gangle didn’t even realize she had been hyperventilating, but with Ragatha’s direction she found herself… definitely not calm given the situation, but much more capable of responding. All eyes outside her door were trained on her, but she looked past all of them once more locking eyes with Jax, a sick epiphany forming in her mind. As everyone looked at her, his face had again gone back to his deranged lopsided smirk and she knew exactly why. He knew she felt guilty for her actions, regardless of how hard he had pushed her to them, and he knew that guilt meant that even without the weapon sitting at her feet she wouldn’t even try to lie. With all eyes on her, he was free to openly revel in his sick glee, to silently gloat about having her dead to rights.

“I… I… I did it… he’s telling the truth.” The looks on everyone’s faces as she admitted to Jax’s accusation made her want to fling herself into the void and never return, the disappointment, the disbelief, the confusion, it all compounded her misery.

“And? So, what if she did?” Zooble spoke up, breaking the silence and drawing everyone attention to themselves. “We all know Jax, look at her godd-*Snap*-n room! Are we really going to take his word alone, we all know he did something to deserve this.” Gangle once again felt like she was going to burst into tears, but for much happier reasons than before.

“Jeez, Zoobie, your sympathy knows no bounds, doesn’t it?” Jax groaned from the floor, now wearing a much more pained expression.

“Shut up Jax, now tell us what happened here!” Zooble demanded from him.

“Do you want me to shut up, or tell you what happened?” Jax retorted.

Clearly incensed by his sarcasm, Zooble took a step towards Jax only to be blocked by Ragatha. “Look let’s just hear Jax out then Gangle can tell us her version of events, ok?” She said, doing whatever she could think of to prevent further violence.

“And why does he get to go first, you taking his side on this?” Zooble asked, narrowing their eyes in suspicion.

“No, I'm not “taking his side” he is the one who is hurt, it’s only fair that he gets to explain first.” Ragatha spoke, once again trying to be the voice of reason.

“Besides, didn’t you just ask me to explain what happened? Is it only taking my side when someone else does it?” Jax snarked from the floor.

“Ugh, whatever, fine, talk!” Zooble grunted out, embarrassed at the unintentionally contradictory nature of their statements being pointed out.

“So, after me and ribbons had our little “talk” at the dinner table, I went to my room. While I was in there, I noticed that something was off, so yeah, I went to Gangle’s room and let myself in-”

“So you did trash the place?!” Zooble interrupted Jax, accusatorially.

“Zooble, we can talk about all that once we get both sides of this.” Ragatha talked them down, before motioning to Jax. “You mentioned something was off in your room, and that’s why you went to Gangle’s, what was wrong?”

“I was getting to that; I had let myself in so I could look for something. A notebook, not really a journal per se, but something I used to keep notes on stuff around the circus, plan out my jokes and the like. I went to her room because I knew she was the one who took it.” With Jax’s new accusation the rest of the circus members once again questioningly looked at her, Gangle, however, could only respond with a confused expression, unable to explain she had no idea what he was talking about before he started speaking again. “That’s what we got into at the dining table too, stuff has been going missing from my room for days now and I know it was her, I’ve seen her sneaking out from my own door. So, I'm in her room looking for my notebook, when she shows up and starts freaking out about me being in there. I just keep grilling her about where my stuff is and suddenly, she loses it, flipping and tossing things all over the place, she even tried to hit me with her little desk chair; while I was fighting her off, her mask broke and then she…” An almost scared or nervous look crept onto Jax’s face, before being replaced with an angry and pained grimace. “Well, that’s how I ended up like this, and that’s what happened.”

“Pfft, yeah like any of us believe that cr-*doot*-p, right?” the ever-skeptical Zooble was the first to speak up after Jax finished explaining, though to their surprise the rest of the circus members just looked between them, Gangle, and Jax, nervously. “Wait- wait- wait, you guys don’t actually believe that load of garbage, do you? We haven’t even heard Gangle’s side yet!”

“That’s exactly it, we haven’t heard her version of events, we’re just keeping an open mind for this situation.” Ragatha once again talked the emotional bundle of shapes down.

“Ya know, for someone who got on Dollface’s case for taking sides, you sure seem to already believe Gangle, and she ain’t even told her version yet.” Jax, on the other hand, provoked another rise out of them.

“Because I know you, and I know her, and I know that she wouldn’t just do something like this!” Zooble shot back.

“But… she admitted to it.” Pomni half whispered into the conversation, clearly uncomfortable doing something that could be seen as defending Jax.

“I mean that she wouldn’t do something like this for no reason, all she admitted to is being the one to hurt the jerk, she hasn’t told us her version yet, but I already know he must have done something heinous that deserved some self defense in return.” Zooble spoke forcefully, but wasn’t actually raising their voice, glaring at Pomni with a look that seemed like their mismatched eyes were trying to bore a hole into the jester’s head.

“Zooble, Pomni wasn’t accusing Gangle or defending Jax, she was just stating a fact.” Ragatha spoke in a measured tone as she held her hands up, now standing between the second largest circus member and the shortest. “You’re right, and she’s right, Gangle did admit to being the one who hurt Jax, but she also hasn’t told us her side or why she did it. Why don’t we all take a breath and listen to her, then we can discuss things afterwards?” She punctuated her request for peace with a nervous and disarming smile; fortunately, the plea seemed to reach Zooble, who stepped back from both the doll and jester and instead turned to Gangle.

 No one noticed the smirk that flashed across Jax’s face for a moment as he watched the argument unfold.

Caught between the confusion of the seemingly random accusations of theft and the great appreciation towards Zooble for standing up for her, Gangle had been staring at nothing in particular. She found herself brought back to simulated reality as she met Zooble’s gaze, a much more kind one than what Pomni had gotten, and realized the others were waiting for her to speak.

“I- I… don’t know what he’s talking about when he says I stole something, that isn’t what happened at the dining table at all. It’s like I told you then, he was picking at me over things he had done recently, it got to me more than it should have so I fought back. Then after I left the dining I came here to my room; he was already in here. The place was trashed- he started making fun of me and then he grabbed my mask and broke it with his bare hands! I was so scared I- I- I panicked I guess; I swung at him with the first thing I could grab and it happened to be… a piece of… my… mask.” As she replayed the events in her mind, she found herself thinking back to being on the ground. The grotesque horror she witnessed as Jax mockingly tortured himself, as he splattered and dripped his own blood all over her, as he planted a twisted kiss onto her forehead. “And then he… after I… he pushed me over and…” She couldn’t find the words to tell them just how far he had gone, every attempt left her with the image of his crooked smirk pouring a black waterfall filling her mind. She had been sobbing before, but actually articulating everything she went through, being forced to properly face the events of the day under such duress, it all proved to much. She slumped on her knees and covered her own face, and then she began wailing, practically screaming into her own hands as both an emotional and literal waterfall flooded from her. Her cries only quieting after she slowly flopped face down onto her floor, and even then, it was only because the carpet was muffling her. The rest of the circus stood in silence, watching her rock from side to on the floor as she wept and yelled for minutes before eventually going still and relatively quiet.

Ragatha was the first to notice the cold and unreadable expression in Zooble’s eyes, complemented by their fist clenched so hard it was shaking. Already knowing what was going to happen the quickly stepped in front of Jax. Her suspicions proved correct as Zooble turned in place and started marching towards the injured rabbit. “Zooble, we haven’t had a chance to discuss anything, just please stay calm so we- woah!” Her pleas were interrupted by Zooble themselves. They grabbed Ragatha by the shoulder and forcefully yanked her to the side, sending her stumbling out of their way.

“I’m gonna finish what she started, AND PEEL OFF THE REST OF YOUR FACE YOU F-*Honk*-K!” Zooble had heard more than enough from Gangle, they screamed in rage as they stomped towards the rabbit slumped against the wall. Regardless of whatever the others were thinking, they had made up their mind and it was their opinion that Jax had yet to suffer enough for whatever it was he had clearly done.

“WAIT, I HAVE PROOF! I HAVE PROOF I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING!” Jax’s sudden plea was the only thing that stopped Zooble just short of wrapping their fist around his neck and making good on their threat.

“What proof could you POSSIBLY have?!” Zooble coldly fired back, their every word slathered in disbelief.

From behind them Gangle slowly lifted their head from the pit of despair she had been trapped in, now equal parts confused and worried. “Proof? What is he talking about, I didn’t do anything.” She thought to herself as she sat back up onto her knees, hers and everyone else’s eyes fixed on Jax, waiting for him to explain.

“I Remembered something, when she was flipping out, I saw something fall into the corner of her room, there was so much going on I didn’t pay attention, but now that I'm thinking more on it, I'm certain, that was my journal- notebook, whatever!” His explanation was met with uncertain glances being exchanged amongst the circus members, except for Zooble who only kept staring straight at him. “I’m serious if you go into the corner of her room behind her little drawing desk my notebook will be on the floor, and if it isn’t then you’re free to accept her word as gospel all you want.”

Pomni was the one to act, sheepishly sidestepping the confused Gangle, walking to her drawing desk and sifting through the papers on the floor behind it. Gangle and the others just watched in silence, the sound of rustling papers being the only noise in the hallway. Zooble continued to stare straight at Jax, as if ready to launch themselves at him the second he was proven wrong.

“I… uh… think I found something!”

Zooble’s death glared instantly melted into a look of shock as they finally took their eyes off Jax, looking with everyone else as Pomni walked out of Gangle’s room brandishing a small brown notebook. No one in the crowd was more confused than Gangle herself however, as she watched evidence of the crime she had never committed being found.

“Open it, you’ll see.” Jax said as he sat up a little straighter against the wall, mustering all the smugness his wounded face could produce.

Pomni started flipping through the pages in front of the others and, true to his word, it quickly became apparent that it belonged to Jax. Diagrams of traps, notes about painful incidents that happened to the others on adventures, and even a few disconnected sentences complaining about this or that event of the day. Despite how quickly they would distrust Jax in any other scenario, this book was irrefutably his.

As they all flipped through the book to confirm its owner Gangle was trapped within her own mind, horrid realizations flooding her thoughts. “He planted his journal? That’s how far he went for all this? Was it just to excuse trashing my room or was it… did he… he really went this far just to hurt me. All because what, I stood up to him one time?! But that doesn’t make sense, Ragatha, Pomni, and especially Zooble all talk back and fight off his bullying constantly… so why is he being so cruel to me specifically? It can’t just be because I got physical with him, Zooble hits him all the time when he gets on their nerves. Why… why does he hate me specifically so much?!”

Gangle’s melancholic line of questioning was once again interrupted by her staunch protector.

“That doesn’t prove a thing!” Zooble continued to deny any credibility on Jax’s part. “For all we know he planted that, and besides, even if for some reason Gangle somehow snuck into his room and stole something from him that doesn’t prove that she “lost it” and attacked him out of the blue. He has done far too much in the few miserable years I’ve known him for me to believe anything he says without concrete evidence.”

“I don’t believe him when he says he didn’t provoke her either but,” Ragatha placated Zooble, her words earning a look of incredulity from Jax “Gangle admitted to hurting him, and we have something of his that we found in her room. You’re right that we don’t know she stole it exactly but after all this I think we should just find Caine to get Jax patched up and move on from this, we’re all emotional” She motioned towards Zooble “and tired, right?” Kinger and Pomni nodded at her in agreement “And besides what is there more for us to do, Gangle is miserable and Jax is mutilated, no matter who was in the wrong they’ve both suffered a lot today.”

“Fine, whatever, you do whatever it is that you think you need to do, I'm gonna stay here and make sure Gangle’s alright.” Zooble responded with a huff.

Taking the little victory of more or less defusing the situation, Ragatha went to Jax and helped him to his feet. As soon as he was up, he walked up to Pomni, who was still flipping through Jax’s notes, and snatched his book from her hands. The black blood on his hands stained the cover of the book as he grabbed it.

“Yeah, shortstuff, I think we know it’s mine, you can stop checking. Nosy little jester…” He hissed haughtily.

“Ok, Jax, lets just get you to your room, ok?” Ragatha started leading him by the shoulder to his door. “Pomni, Kinger, do you think you two could look for Caine?” Her request was met with simple nods as the two walked off in different directions. “Let’s get you sat down somewhere I can help stop the bleeding.”

“Yeah, that would be good, I'm startin to feel a little dizzy.” Jax mumbled back. The two awkwardly walked to his room, Jax being half carried the entire way.

Gangle hazily watched them walk up the hall, mentally lost in the recollection of the days events and still fixated on that very pertinent (to her at least) question. “Why is he being so cruel to me specifically?” She found herself brought back to awareness when the sight and sound of Jax’s door shutting behind him and Ragatha filled the hall. She looked to her side and saw that Zooble had already begun picking things up off the floor, the sight leading to her realizing she still wasn’t finished dealing with the consequences of today’s events. From her position, seated on her knees, she started turning in place to pick up and pile papers and figures that had been scattered in the chaos. How she was going to clean the black inky stains on her carpet was something she would have to think about later, unfortunately. As the two worked to reorganize the mess of a room, Zooble shuffled past Gangle and spoke as they did so.

“Hey, you alright?” they asked, the concern plain in their usually stoic (barring anger) voice.

“No… but thank you for asking, for helping me too, it felt like you were the only one willing to hear me out.” Gangle murmured her response, a tinge of appreciation coloring her pain.

“I think it’s ridiculous that they would even listen to a thing he said, all the garbage he’s pulled throughout the years and they still give him the benefit of the doubt?” Zooble vented their frustrations with the others as they crouched down to begin shuffling some loose papers into a pile.

Gangle noticed Ragatha exit Jax’s room and walk towards her own, presumably to get something she thought could help Jax.

“Looks like we’ve got most of your stuff all together, I can help you finish putting everything back where it should be tomorrow, if you want.” Zooble offered as the stepped in front of Gangle, their back to the door.

“Yeah, I would appreciate the help a lot, thank… you…” Gangle’s voice trailed off as her eyes looked past Zooble, looking into the darkness of Jax’s half open door.

From the very edge of the shadows within, she could see him. Leaning forward and peeking barely out, staring at her. His bright yellow eyes almost glowing in the dark, his lopsided macabre smirk overtaking her vision. She caught herself falling backwards, ending up looking like she was going to try and crawl away on her back. Terrified whimpers fled her mouth against her will as she shot a ribbon hand out to point at the door. As Zooble followed her pointing however, Jax pulled back and closed it leaving any hint of movement gone before Zooble had even realized what Gangle was pointing towards.

“On second thought, maybe I should stay the night, make sure you’re alright, ok?” Zooble asked, the concern in their voice at odds with the clear anger with which they closed the door to Gangle’s room.

“Yes, please I think I would like that a lot.” Gangle muttered barely audibly, embarrassed at how pitiful she must look at that moment. Thought even with all that she couldn’t help but feel a bit of positivity thanks to her friend’s willingness to help.

“You go clean yourself up, no way you’ll be able to sleep like that.” Zooble pointed to the bathroom as they spoke.

Gangle was confused at first only to suddenly and very uncomfortably remember she was practically drenched in Jax’s blood. Taking Zooble’s advice, she nearly sprinted into the shower. After minutes and minutes of desperately scrubbing every inch of herself clean of the black inky repercussions of her defending herself, she finally stepped out and returned to her actual room. To her confusion, her desk had been slid in front of the door while Zooble was lazing in a recliner in the corner.

“I'm just making sure a certain someone doesn’t try anything while we’re asleep, you know that creep and his keys.” Zooble explained, having noticed Gangle glancing at the odd placement.

“Oh, that makes sense. I hadn’t thought of that, thank you. I'm… sorry… that you always have to look out for me like this.” The pile of ribbons couldn’t help but feel like a burden after all the chaos of the day, like she had pulled Zooble into her mess.

“You don’t need to apologize for anything, especially not for standing up for yourself. If that freak can’t handle someone fighting back, then he shouldn’t act the way he does.” Her friend reassured her, their voice calm and measured aside from the obvious disdain for the “He” in question.

“Thank you… uhm good night then I guess...” Gangle crawled into her bed as she spoke, she wanted to say more, to tell Zooble that this was the first time she felt safe all day, that she actually felt a little happy now that they were here with her. But be it exhaustion or nerves, she could only mumble out a halfhearted platitude.

“Yeah, no problem. G’night.” Zooble responded in total calm, remaining friendly but stoic to hopefully help Gangle relax, before turning onto their side, closing their eyes, and pulling the spare blanket they had grabbed over themselves.

Gangle found herself on her side as well, watching her friend sleep. It was a little shocking how fast they were out, but some people were just like that. Curled up in her blanket, Gangle forced the memories of the day from her mind. She focused on Zooble, their calm breathing and presence in general. She focused on the times they would just quietly be in each other’s company, no real interaction beyond glances or quick questions about what the other was doing. But those simple thoughts helped her forget the day, even with the violent reminders scattered across her room. Finally, she found herself so focused on the happy thoughts that she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

A taunting giggle echoed in her mind, cruel and wry. Gangle recognized it immediately, her eyes shooting open in horror. Jax stood right in front her, the only thing she could see, in a room of pitch blackness. He smiled at her, illuminated by an unseeable light source, the only thing she could see in the unfamiliar pit of darkness. She wanted to yell, to scream at him to go away, to fight as hard as she could, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Nothing was holding her down, she wasn’t bound or gagged in any way, but still she found herself incapable of acting. Then he stepped forward, his smile growing to its absolute limit, getting mere inches away from her face as he loomed over her. But his grin apparently wasn’t at a satisfactory size. His hands rose to his mouth and, after hooking his fingers into the corners of his smile, he began pulling. Harder and harder, his arms shaking with effort as all Gangle could do was stare. And then there was a single sound that echoed in her mind, a sickening squelch as his finger shot past the corners of his mouth. The wretched sound played on repeat as Jax kept pulling, splitting his face open with his own bare hands, spraying his black blood all over Gangle once more. After splitting his smile wide open he grabbed at Gangle, an iron grip holding her face under his. He looked down upon her and slowly opened his mouth, his teeth sharp and pointed, as a torrential downpour of ichor flowed from his throat. Gangle could only stare in silent unmoving horror as the flood washed across her entire face, into her eyes, into her mouth, every inch of her covered, the only thing she could see through the waterfall of blood was Jax’s eyes, glowing yellow in the total darkness she was being drowned under.

And then she opened her eyes.

A violent and extremely twisted memory of the day before, nothing more. She sat up in her bed hyperventilating, but eventually found herself calming down as she breathed deep and took in her surroundings. She was in her room, the door in was blocked by her desk, and most importantly of all, her best friend was asleep just a few feet away from her. Seeing Zooble brought her even more peace than realizing she had just been having a nightmare, no matter how awful things got, they helped her relax better than anything or anyone else in the circus could. They had been this way since almost the moment they ended up in the circus, something that Gangle had at first just chalked up to either her own pitiful nature or the idea that helping her was just to spite Jax. But Zooble had proven themselves genuine. Her mind wandered to memories of their time together, pockets of peace in the chaos that was the circus (and Jax especially), this wasn’t even the first sleepover they had had together in their years in simulated reality. But all these thoughts on how Zooble made her feel all eventually led to the same place, her own annoyance at herself for her inability to express her feelings. She had long since lost track of when exactly she had fallen for her friend, but her emotions themselves were unmistakable. Sadly, negativity begets negativity and her beating herself up for being too scared to admit her affections led her back to her nightmare.

Shaken by the images of yesterday, and their twisted facsimile she had just awoken from, she resolved to push the thoughts away with happier ones. Looking towards Zooble sleeping soundly, she began to fantasize. How comfortable and safe she would feel curled up around them under the blanket. Zooble might even oblige the request if she made it, though Gangle assumed it would be for more platonic reasons and she felt like that would be taking advantage. Even still the mental image brought her great comfort, she wanted to keep it, to hold onto it for as long as she could, and she knew exactly how to do so. Slinking off her bed and walking to her drawing desk, she quietly slid a blank paper to the center and grabbed a pencil. Working quickly and quietly (both because she didn’t wish to disturb her friends sleep, and she would be hard pressed to explain what she was doing if she was interrupted mid drawing) to sketch out her mental salve. For how much practice she had it was simple work, though she couldn’t help herself from making things a little harder for herself. Some shaded in blush on both their sleeping faces, a few simple hearts replacing the blank diamond stitching on the blanket, and other such touches.

 She felt a tinge of guilt, drawing something like this of someone she knew without their permission felt wrong, but she was desperate for comfort and maybe if she ever did manage to take things farther in their relationship it would make for a funny story to share. For now though, as she let out a contented sigh while she gazed upon her work, it would have to hide in her false drawer. A trick bottom to one of her desk drawers that only she knew about or the trick to opening it. How she knew how to build that, she didn’t know; She just figured she must have hidden stuff the same way back in the real world. Still taking care to not disturb Zooble, she slid the bottom of the drawer loose and slipped her newest sketch onto the pile. Even as happy as the sketch made her, she still felt a pang of guilt for drawing it. She had never drawn anyone else in the circus without their permission, (aside from any who were… no longer with them to give it) and especially not anything of this nature. Her secret pile was entirely fictional characters she could remember from the real world in not so “family friendly” (as Caine would put it) positions, thankfully they were allowed less savory things when in the privacy of their own rooms.

“It’s no big deal,” She reasoned to herself mentally, “it’s not like I draw anything like… explicit, and besides, next to even these, this drawing is totally tame.”

Even if she mostly talked her own guilt away, a quick glance at Zooble’s sleeping form made sure no desire to show the drawing sprang forth; For the time being, at least. Closing up her secret compartment, she snuck back to her bed, taking extra care to avoid stepping on the black stains on the floor. Dry or not, she would rather just stay away from them entirely. She quickly slipped back into bed having decided that if she didn’t know what time it was, she should just go back to sleep. With the image of her finished drawing in her mind, she found herself both quicker to sleep and much less fitful through what remained of the night.

Again, she opened her eyes. Thankfully, it was a much calmer affair then the previous nights terror. A rustling drew her eyes to other side of her room where she spied Zooble picking up and rearranging some figurines.

“Good morning,” Gangled mumbled out, wiping their eyes out of human habit. She felt… lighter and figured her mask must have fixed itself over night like it always does. “Why Caine can’t make it happen more often is anyone’s guess.”

“Yeah, hey. Didja sleep well?” They responded back, the smile that wasn’t on their face was definitely in their voice.

She considered telling them about her nightmare, but she figured Zooble was already worried enough as is. “Yep, with you around, I knew I had nothing to worry about,” She said with the biggest smile her comedy mask could muster.

“Th- thanks… glad I could help.” Zooble seemed surprised by the praise, but seemed to accept it. They followed Gangle’s eyes to the pieces of statue in their hand and robotic grabber. “Uh… yeah I got no idea how to put these back together, but I figured at least getting em all sorted on your shelf would be helpful,” They spoke with a shrug as they continued to pile similar looking pieces with each other on Gangle’s bookshelf, “So, now that your up, do you want to stay in for the morning and pick up or do you want to just go to breakfast and handle all this,” They gestured to the… everything… that was ruined in the room, “later?”

After a moment of thought, Gangle answered, “I think I’d rather just get away from… yesterday… for now. Not like any of this stuff is going anywhere, and I still need some way to clean up all of… that,” She pointed at the black pools in the carpet.

“Fair enough,” Zooble said back, as they went to drag the table out of the way of the door. “I'm gonna go change up for the day, I don’t think anyone else has gotten up yet, wait for Ragatha to knock on Pomni’s door like she does every morning and head to the table with them. Don’t let that creep have a chance to get you alone, ya’know? Then again, after how you showed him up yesterday, maybe he learned his damn lesson. Proud of you, by the way,” They ended their words with an assuring wink.

Gangle gave a smile and nod in return as Zooble left the room. She may have appreciated Zooble’s attempt at kindness but she couldn’t help but still feel guilty about what she had done. Even if Jax was awful, pretty much all the time at that, she felt like she had gone way too far, even if it had been an accident how much damage she had done. That guilt was tempered greatly by the memories of what Jax had done that day, however. His weird frame job, his trashing of her room that preceded it, and worst of all his bizarre self-torture. That sickening display, and for what, just to traumatize her as revenge for standing up to him? It was so confusing; she had been in the circus for a few years now and even with all the things he had done he had never gone that… grotesque before. Sure, gross gags and weird jokes weren’t out of the ordinary for the rabbit, but he had never been just outright vile to such a degree.

*knock knock knock*

Her attempts to make sense of the day before were interrupted by the distant sound of Ragatha meeting Pomni in the morning, her usual schedule for the morning ever since the recent arrivals particularly bad first day. Content that she wouldn’t be alone in the hall, she finally left her room; She made sure to lock it behind her, as she looked to the doll and jester chatting in the hall. She gave a simple wave and a smile to get their attention and they… seemed apprehensive? There was a brief pause in the hall as Pomni and Ragatha seemingly debated in silence whether or not they should greet her back.

“Is… everything ok?” Gangle asked, her comedy mask unable to hide her worry.

After another couple of seconds of silent looks between the two women opposite her, Ragatha finally looked back at her with a gentle smile. “Oh, it’s nothing, really. There’s just… one thing… maybe, I guess…”

“Ugh, why did you have these?” Pomni interrupted the taller woman’s mumbling by cutting straight to the chase, holding out a small bolt of fabric and a tailored piece of cloth. Fashioned and cut into the shape of diminutive dress, it was clearly part of one of Gangle’s figures.

“Uhm, what do you mean? Shouldn’t I be asking you that? I think I made that myself for one of my statues. Why did you take things from my room?” Gangle responded, confused at the sudden interrogation.

“Because I have seen things like this before, in Ragatha’s room. I brought it to her after everything calmed down yesterday and she says it belongs to her, but she lost track of it ages ago.” Pomni continued in her usual direct style.

“I made that dress years ago, I'm pretty sure, I must have borrowed it and just forgot to give it back,” Gangle could feel herself getting upset as she spoke, taking offense to the implied accusation.

“See Pomni, I told you it was nothing, Gangle has borrowed craft supplies from me so many times. It makes sense that either or both of us would end forgetting something at some point,” Ragatha jumped in, sensing the rising emotion of the ribbon girl, before continuing with a chastising tone. “I do wish you had let me handle this like I asked. I know you prefer the direct approach but you should know by now that Gangle is sensitive, even with her comedy mask intact.”

Gangle couldn’t help but feel condescended being talked about in such a way and as if she wasn’t standing right there, but she did at least appreciate someone (other than Zooble) finally defending her on something. That appreciation was replaced with indignation as Gangle fully realized just what was going on. “Wait wait wait… did you think I stole that cloth?” She questioned the now bashful jester.

“Well… I was just… I could tell it was Ragatha’s, and after finding Jax’s journal I-” Pomni defended herself

“You believe him?! I told you I have no idea how that book got in my room, and we all know he has ways of sneaking in to pretty much any of our places,” Gangle couldn’t stop her anger from seeping into her voice. After everything that happened the day before, to be accused of thievery first thing in the morning would put most anyone on edge. Ragatha seemed to be racking her mind for what to say to prevent a full-blown argument.

“You’re right,” Pomni spoke up before she could think of anything to say, “I leapt to a wild conclusion. I shouldn’t have accused you… I shouldn’t have even suspected you in the first place. I let Jax’s accusations get into my head I guess, I'm sorry.”

“Let’s just agree that yesterday was terrible even by the circus’s usual standards and we should all just try to put it behind us,” Ragatha interjected, seizing the opportunity to push for peace between her friends.

Gangle still felt upset at being accused by someone she considered a friend, but she also felt like Ragatha was right; Until that moment Gangle hadn’t considered anyone else, the others hadn’t gone through nearly as much as she had, but the chaos of yesterday had probably left an awful impression on everyone’s minds, “It’s ok, I don’t think any of us are thinking straight after all that happened yesterday, lets just go get breakfast and forget about all this,” Gangle spoke with a calm smile on her face.

As the two nodded in agreement Zooble exited their room, having swapped their arm and leg for a tentacle and a rigid walking stick respectively, and looked at the scene in the hall. “What are you guys standing around here for, I figured you would all be at the dining table and halfway finished eating by now… hey what with all the cloth?”

“Oh this? It’s just… some of Gangle’s things I found in the hall during all the mess yesterday, yeah, you two had already gone into her room and I didn’t want to disturb you so I just… kept it with me… and now I'm giving it back.” Pomni spoke nervously, hoping Zooble would believe her so that she could put this awkward situation of her own making behind herself.

“Yeah, here let me take em.” Gangle grabbed the items from Pomni before stepping over and just tossing them through her own door and shutting it again, also hoping to put the near argument into the immediate past. “Thanks for finding those for me, Pomni.”

“Welp, I think we’ve all been standing around for too long, lets go get something to eat and officially start the day!” Ragatha said, the forced peppiness in her voice obvious but not unusual for the overly chipper doll.

“Yeah, here’s hoping that Kinger hasn’t built a tower to the sky out of everything, or worse, that jerk rabbit swiped all the good stuff for himself.” Zooble spoke as they all finally took off to the main hall.

As the quartet walked into the main hall, Gangle glanced at the dining table in the center of the room. Smooth pancakes, rubbery eggs, plastic like toast, and various pitchers covered the table; Though her eyes falling upon the man sitting at the far end of the table did a lot to sap her appetite. Jax, in front of a crumb covered plate and a half empty cup of juice, was leaning back in his chair at the end of the table with his legs kicked up onto the table and his eyes closed. With his arms crossed over his chest and his head leaned back, it appeared that he was asleep in his chair.

“Good, maybe if we just eat quietly, I won’t have to deal with him until whatever Caine has planned for today starts,” Gangle thought to herself as she and the others, seemingly also intent on not dealing with Jax unless they have to, walked in silence to grab whatever they could and sit down. After gently scooping some eggs onto a plate and pouring some orange juice, she silently pulled a chair out and sat down to-

“AHH! Oh geeze, Gangle you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.” Kinger, who had been staring at her from behind his tower of toast and cups on the other side of the table, suddenly shouted in shock. His outburst grabbed the attention of everyone at the table… everyone.

“Sheesh, no one was gonna warn me that psycho showed up?! At the very least, keep an eye on her when she’s got anything sharp and/or pointy in her little ribbon mitts, alright?” Shouted the now awake Jax from the end of the table as he dropped his feet to the floor and sat straight up, an angry glare at odds with his ever-present grin.

“Back off Jax! It is too early in the morning for your sh-*Ding*-t!” Zooble was quick to yell back.

“Really?! Really? I need to back off? I got my face filleted and I’m the one that needs to make space?” Jax shot back, his smile dropping and indignation in his voice.

“YOU ATTACKED ME!” Gangle yelled out, tired of making Zooble stand up for her all the time and appalled that Jax would act so haughty after all the awful things he had done just the night before. She punctuated her shouting by slamming her fork onto her plate, a loud clatter echoing through the room.

Jax flinched in his seat, his eyes going wide and his ears folding back.

Everyone, including Gangle herself, couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Jax was… scared of Gangle?

“No way, that makes no sense, all those disgusting things he did yesterday… no way he was scared at all!” Gangle reasoned to herself, though she kept silent out of fear of making herself look like the aggressor all over again. She looked over at the others, hoping her confusion would come across to them. The looks she got from the other three she had walked to the dining table with told her that they were just as confused as she was.

“Uhm… maybe we should all work to put yesterday behind us, obviously emotions are still running high. Let’s all just relax and eat until Caine gives us something to do for the day,” Ragatha was quick to speak, forcing a chipper inflection onto her voice, desperate to maintain what little peace she had fought for the day before.

“Yeah… fine… just keep her away from me,” Jax grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away.

“A- and keep h-him away from me,” Gangle added, her voice uncertain, Jax’s strange reaction putting her off balance.

“Uh… huh… those sound like great ideas,” Pomni agreed awkwardly, trying to “yes and…” her way out of getting into a second socially awkward argument. Especially one she didn’t cause this time.

An uneasy silence hung over the table as everyone sat and stared at their plates or into the distance, the only noise being the unaware Kinger continuing to stack whatever he could grab into a “tower”. Unusually for the circus members, noticeable relief was palpable throughout the table as Caine made his appearance by bursting out of a cloud of smoke and stars.

“Good morning my splendiferous superstars! I hope all the hullabaloo from last night hasn’t dampened anyone’s mood for mentally stimulating adventures!” The ringmaster blared from above everyone, his naivety about the human mind’s ability to move past trauma shining through his words as it always does. “If those troubles are still on your minds, then worry not, today’s adventure will push those bad memories away in favor of new thrilling events!”

“Wow Caine, what could you have planned that is that exciting?!” Bubble, who had flown out from under one of the covered platters on the dining table, asked.

“Well, my spherical sidekick, I’ll tell you!” As Caine spoke, he pointed his cane at a massive portrait that had appeared during his speech. The giant tarp that covered it disappeared in a burst of light and sparkles. The massive portrait standing on the floor by the dining table portrayed a dramatic sight, an old manor surrounded by thick forest, “Today I’ve put together a perilous journey through what I like to call “The Mystery Mansion Maze!”,” The words appeared in gold across the top of the portrait as Caine explained the adventure. A big mansion full of traps and puzzles, and they would all be locked in it until they could investigate the place thoroughly enough to open the front door.

That was the gist as Gangle understood it at least, she was more concerned with the idea of being locked in an enclosed maze-like estate alongside Jax to actually listen fully. Regardless of how he had acted just minutes ago, she didn’t trust him at all. Ignoring Caine’s theatrical explanations, she sent a pleading look towards Zooble in the hopes that they would understand her wordless request to forego their usual skipping of adventures. Zooble must have noticed them from the corner of their eyes because they turned their head to her ever so subtly and gave a small nod.

“Now, is everyone ready for a lovely traipse through a puzzle-tastic adventure that shall test both mind and reflexes?!” Caine barely waited a few seconds for any of the circus members to say anything and after not hearing anything, even from Zooble to his shock and joy, he clapped his hands. A portal filled the frame of the huge portrait and before the others could even process what was happening Caine gripped the corner of it and pushed it over, dropping the portal onto the dining table and all those sitting at it.

The circus members began to slowly take in their surroundings as their various levels of shock and panic dissipated. True to Caine’s word, they found themselves in the anteroom of a very ostentatiously decorated mansion. Brass sconces lining the walls and a golden candle covered chandelier provided the only light in the room, grey veined marble tiles covered the floor, stairs with black metal railings flanked a large water fountain at the back of the room, and at the front of the room a large pair of wooden double doors that presumably led to the exit judging by the intricately filigreed golden padlock and numerous silver chains that covered it. In spite of its decorations, the dim flickering lights and the dust and spiderwebs all over the place made the room feel like anything other than regal. With their eyes finally adjusting to the candle lit room, the circus gang stood themselves up from the displaced dining table.

Always eager to play along, Ragatha was the first to speak up, “So, Caine said we need to find our way around this place until we find the things we need to get out,” She walked over to the large locked door and looked it over closely, “This padlock has several keyholes, guess we have to keep our eyes open for a bunch of keys… maybe those puzzles he mentioned will give them to us?”

Always eager to be disruptive, Jax was the first to respond (Pomni was technically the first, but Jax started speaking over her before she could even get a word out.) “Yeah, yeah, yeah… that sounds real fun, you all enjoy yourselves. I’m gonna get some peace and quiet away from nutcase and her attack dog,” Gangle and Zooble glared in offense to the obviously targeted insult, “maybe I’ll be on the lookout for any things I can put to good use and work on my Gangle impression at the same time.” This comments instead gathered confused looks from the others as he casually strolled up one of the staircases. “…I’m saying I'm going to look for things to steal and use to mess with you all, bye!” His grin turned into an angry sneer as he leaned on the railing to deliver his statement, before he quickly stomped up the remaining steps and around a corner out of sight.

“W-wait! Jax! Caine mentioned traps a-and the more of us working together-” Ragatha was quick to try and reason with the obstinate rabbit. She was both concerned for Jax’s safety in the supposedly trap filled house and for the safety of herself and the others; She understood the danger of Jax going unsupervised for any real amount of time. Her pleading was interrupted by Zooble placing a hand upon her shoulder, stopping her just before she stepped onto the stairs. A gaggle of silent glances from the rest of the group convinced her that convincing him was more trouble than it was worth.

“He’ll be fine, and if he does end up trapped in some diabolical or torturous trap he’ll probably be let go once we find the keys for the way out,” Kinger piped up. His blasé attitude towards the potential dangers of the mansion caught the others off guard, though before they could respond his moment of clarity was seemingly ended as he wandered into the corner of the room and began trying to grab a spider off its web.

“Whatever happens to him, happens. Not our problem if he wants to wander off and get hurt,” Zooble added.

“Least it would keep him off our back if it happened,” Gangle muttered under her breath to herself alone, “Let’s make sure we stay wary, his running off might just be so he can get the drop on us later,” she said making sure she was heard this time.

“I actually wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case,” Pomni agreed with a shrug.

“Uhn… I… fine, I guess asking him to get along with everyone else after only a single day is a big ask,” Ragatha relented with a sigh.

“Him getting along with anyone at any point is a big ask!” Gangle spat out, more venom seeping into her words than she intended.

“Okay…let’s just have fun and solve some puzzles, ya’know take our minds off last night.” Ragatha calmly responded, fumbling her hands together in an obvious sign of nervousness, focusing her calming down efforts on Gangle now.

Thankfully for Ragatha, Gangle was much more amenable to her reasonable requests; It helped that she was also quick to realize that her aggression towards Jax was weighing down the mood, “Y-yeah, sorry about that, your r-right. I just got emotional, but I s-shouldn’t let him get to me, lets just try to have fun,” She stuttered back with a smile, hoping that she could both put yesterday behind her and bring her friend’s moods back up.

Ragatha responded with a calm smile, before leading the group up the stairs opposite the flight Jax had gone up. Despite Caine’s over the top explanation, the dusty hallways and cluttered rooms proved to be much more boring than he implied. They didn’t expect Caine to put anything particularly cruel in, but the most interesting thing that had happened in the about six rooms they had checked was a tripwire activated spring loaded pie that slapped into Zooble’s face. The already bored mismatched circus member wasn’t exactly happy at the “trap” but their fellows couldn’t help but giggle before they all returned to aimless wandering and checking every nook and cranny they could find for clues, keys, or puzzles through which they could use or find either.

“Urgh, if I had known he was just going to wander off and disappear I wouldn’t have bothered coming along,” Zooble grumbled at Gangle as they finished wiping bits of whipped cream off their face.

“If I had known he wouldn’t be an issue I wouldn’t have asked, but I mean… I at least feel better with you here regardless,” Gangle said as she looked through a large chest of drawers, “Besides, it’s not all bad right? At least we get to hang out, and this little trip is thankfully a lot calmer than most of Caine’s big plans.”

“Yeah… I guess. Being kinda bored is better than being in danger at least.”

“You wouldn’t be so bored if you actually helped you know?” Gangle teased, “So far the only thing you’ve helped us find was that tripwire.”

“Har har,” Zooble mock laughed, “Like you guys have been able to find anything either.”

“Just try it out, besides if this is truly so awful for you then the more of us working together will get it over faster, right?” Gangle tried to convince her friend, looking up at her friend with a pleading smile.

After a few seconds of staring between the two, Zooble let out an exasperated grunt before speaking, “Fine, if only to get this all over quicker… has anyone looked through that yet?” They asked, pointing at a dusty bookcase in the corner.

“Nope,” Gangle answered simply.

Zooble started walking towards the bookcase, though they stopped just before they put any real distance between themselves and Gangle, “And yeah, your right, at least we get to hang out for more of the day… but don’t go thinking I'm gonna make going on these stupid trips a habit.”

“It’s ok, I’ll gladly take what I can get,” Gangle spoke with a grin as she stood from her knees to start searching through the knickknacks on top of the drawers.

“Uh, yeah…” Zooble swallowed nervously with their non-existent mouth. They quickly looked around the room and, seemingly wanting to change the subject, took notice of something they could bring up. “Hey, where did the others go?” They asked as they made their way to the bookshelf and began to half-heartedly search through it.

“Oh, Kinger thought he saw something in the hallway and Pomni followed him to keep watch for him, none of us should be wandering around here alone after all.,” Ragatha responded as she stood up from behind a desk at the back of the room that she had been looking into. To her surprise, Zooble seemed shocked by her presence, “Sorry, did I surprise you?”

“Yeah! I was asking her, I forgot you were in here too,” Zooble huffed back wide eyed before turning back to the bookshelf and continuing to search through it, though with a more annoyed energy to their movements.

“Are they embarrassed to have been caught off guard?” Gangle thought to herself, unable to stop herself from enjoying this rarely seen side of her friend, “I thought I was the scaredy cat of the group,” She joked at her flustered friend. She continued to fumble with the things atop the drawers, not paying attention as her gaze was fixed on Zooble.

“Oh ho ho,” Zooble laughed in faux annoyance, “Look at you, stood up to Jax one time and now you’re little miss confidence! Dropping jokes and everything.”

Ragatha giggled from the back of the room, “It’s great seeing you so happy, Gangle. I told all of you that if we just focused on enjoying ourselves then we could all-”

*CLICK*

Ragatha was interrupted for the who-knows time that day, a loud muffled bassy click reverberating through the room grabbing the three occupants’ attention. As the sound echoed through the room Gangle looked down at her hand, the dusty candle stick she had obliviously grabbed had a… lever attached to the bottom of it?

She could barely get out a scream, and the others could just barely look at her in time, before a bunch of the floorboards beneath her feet swung open.

“Gangle!” Zooble and Ragatha both shouted in unison, though she could barely hear them over her own screaming as she quickly slid down what felt like a giant metal pipe. She glanced upwards just in time to see the floorboard trapdoor shut back together, cutting off the only light Gangle had. She continued to fall in total darkness until, after a few twists, spins, and turns, she saw light coming up from below her. Despite her panic she still had the presence of mind to quickly wrap her hands around her face in an effort to protect her mask as she came tumbling out of the trap tunnel. All she could do was groan as she lay on the hard stone floor, the slide and tumble leaving her sore all over, before she managed to lift her head and take in her new surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that her efforts weren’t wasted, her comedy mask was still intact, the second was that she seemed to be in some sort of large storage room; Burlap bags and wooden barrels were stacked across the back wall, a few sparse tables and chairs were spread around the room, and much less decorated iron torches granted scant light in the musty room.

“Oh god, how am I going to get out of here?” she questioned herself as she sat up onto her knees, “Ok, calm down, there has to be a door… just walk along the walls until you find it… yeah that should work,” She curled her ribbon hands into fists and held them in front of herself, doing her best to stay brave. Her efforts to keep her own spirits up were halted however, when a voice came echoing from just behind her.

“I was hoping you’d be the one I end up running into!” Spoke the last voice Gangle wanted to hear at the… well any moment really, but now was especially bad. She turned to face where she thought the voice was coming from, but the speaker wasn’t what she spotted. Instead, she saw a leg careening from the darkness right at her. Jax’s shin crashed into her face, hard, knocking her back to the ground. She was knocked dizzy by the assault, hearing her mask break before she felt it, left to yell out on the ground as the pain caught up with her. It felt like her nose had been broken (if she had had one), her head was ringing and sore, and she found herself fighting to keep her eyes open. Despite her disorientation, instinct took over and she rolled over to start standing up. Survival instinct could only push her through so much however, as she was unable to put much energy into fighting back as Jax grabbed her by the top of her mask and began dragging her across the floor.

“L… let… LET ME GO!” Gangle felt her energy flood back into herself as her mind finally caught up to the situation. She swatted and slapped at Jax’s hand and arm but either she was too dazed to put enough energy into the strikes or Jax was just ignoring any pain she was inflicting, either way her fighting accomplished nothing as he continued to drag her, “You jerk! You psycho! Let! Me! G- AUGH!” Her tirade against the rabbit was interrupted when he roughly tossed her backwards into an old dusty wooden chair, the back of her head colliding with the stone wall just behind it. She groaned and rubbed the back of her head, bracing herself for whatever Jax had planned next… but instead he just stood there, waiting for her to recover it seemed. She forced herself to lift her head and glare at the smiling bunny as hard as she could possibly muster through her pain and tears, “Why are you doing this? Just because I slapped you? Because I fought back after you attacked me in my own room?!”

Jax let out a short chuckle before speaking, his voice disturbingly joyous, “I do this because I like seeing you miserable,” His huge grin at odds with the cruelty of his words.

His simple response wasn’t surprising by itself, but more so in how direct it was. She didn’t expect Jax to be so honest about his awfulness. Sure, he reveled in being a jerk but that was when he was pulling rude pranks or screwing around on adventures. This was him directly admitting that he was committing violent assault just because he liked seeing her in pain. But she was sick of his nonsense, she felt emboldened by her own previous actions, she had stood up to him once and she could do it again,  “Well, I’m not gonna give you that satisfaction, I'm sick of being your chew toy!”

“Hm, fine by me,” Jax said with a shrug, his nonreaction confusing Gangle. He leaned back down bringing himself face to face with her, “’Sides’, I do like seeing you all upset and crying and sad, but then I saw this side of you… or maybe I should say you stopped hiding this side of yourself?”

“Hiding? What are you tal- OW!” Gangle’s interjection was cut off by Jax casually shoving his palm into her face, clunking the back of her head against the stone wall behind her chair once again.

“Either way,” Jax continued over Gangle’s groans, not acknowledging his own actions, “I’ve decided that you’re cuter when you’re mad.”

Gangle, doubled over and grabbing her own head once again, fired open her eyes. Jax’s words left her ill, there was no way he had just said that… right? She must be hearing things wrong because of multiple cases of head trauma, the alternative to injury induced delirium was usually the better outcome but in this case the thought of Jax calling her cute after everything he had done made her sick to her stomach, “Zooble’s right, you are a creep! And you need to get away from me!” She shot her glare back at Jax again as she spoke in defiance. To her shock, this seemed to finally get a reaction out of the rabbit as he stood up, stepped forward, and slammed his hand onto the rough-hewn wooden table next to her; The various plates, cups, and utensils on the table clattered and shook fiercely.

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT NAME!” He screamed into her face a he loomed over her, his eyes fierce and his grin replaced with a cold scowl, stunning her into silence, “In fact,” He continued, his voice returning to its usual smug and sarcastic tone as his grin reappeared, “I’d prefer if you didn’t bring up anyone else at all right now, this is us time.”

“There is no us to have time, I said you need to back off you weirdo!” Recovering from Jax’s outburst, Gangle picked her defiant streak back up.

“And if I don’t?” He leaned over, getting in her face once again. The corner of his smile was creeping upward into a deranged smirk, his eyes were wide, “Are you gonna…” His hand crept up to the pocket of his overalls and began tugging at the opening. He unsubtly shook his pocket until something slowly slipped out with a clang against the table next to Gangle, “…do something about it?”

It was a knife, a kitchen knife, not one of the rusty ancient ones from the mansion but one of the ones they used every day at the dining table.

“Wh- What?! Why d-do you- wait do you WANT me to-” Gangle could barely stammer out a response, too shocked to get her thoughts on track.

“Whaaaaat? What’s the problem? You seemed real eager to butcher this bunny last night. Besides, I thought you were oh so proud of yourself for finally standing up to the big bad bully?” Jax’s smug tone was suffocating.

“I didn’t mean to do… THAT… I panicked! Even if it was against you, all I could feel was guilt. That was too far, and I’m not going that far again, I'm not stooping to your level!” Gangle found her wits enough to begin talking back once again.

“Nah, you liked it. I could tell, even if you can’t… but I think you can… deep down,” He brought his face even closer, close enough that Gangle felt his simulated breath on her face with every word, “…you liked it, you liked getting to drop the innocent little loser act.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” She yelled back at him, though he had no reaction to her attempt at intimidation and denial.

“You can deny it all you want, doesn’t change the fact that I already know what’s behind that pretty little mask of yours,” He brought himself as close as he could possibly get, his forehead against her, holding her head against the wall with his own, “I’ve known for years now, I’ve been waiting for you to slip up, give me an in so I can start breaking down that façade of yours,” His voice was a disgustingly sensual whisper.

“You’ve finally lost your mind; you aren’t making any sense!” Gangle grunted out as she fruitlessly struggled against Jax’s grasp.

“Heh, you can keep denying it… won’t stop me from proving it to the others…” He finally stood up, giving Gangle room to breathe, “Once the others see you for what I know you are… well, we’ll see,” He gave a smirk and wink, “By the way, what happened to all that “you better back off” stuff, I handed you a way out of this and you really don’t want to take it?” He motioned to the knife, still sitting on the table by her.

“I despise you, Jax, but I'm not a monster, I'm not going to brutaliz- MMPH!” Gangles response was stopped in its tracks by something she couldn’t have possibly expected. Jax had stuffed his fingers into her mouth, hooking his thumb under her chin to get a hard grip on her lower jaw.

“Well, if that ain’t your style, howse about this? We both know first hand how sharp the edges your cute little face can get, so go on… chomp down,” His voice was positively giddy, his grin wider than ever as if he was enjoying the idea of Gangle mutilating him.

She yelled as loudly as she could, her cries muffled by Jax’s hand, as she thrashed and slapped at Jax. She couldn’t keep her bravery together, not anymore this was too much. Her screams melted into sobs, her physical resistance losing its energy. “Please, Zooble… Ragatha… Pomni, Kinger, Caine, Bubble, ANYONE HELP ME!” She pleaded with the reality itself with all her might. To her surprise, she felt the grip on her jaw loosen and the invading digits leave her mouth. She spat and wiped at her mouth, desperate to get any feeling of what just happened out of her. She looked up through tears at Jax who was busy staring at his, now wet with saliva, hand.

“Darn, you really don’t want to play along, do ya? Oh well, isn’t gonna change anything,” With a chuckle, he brought the glistening gloved hand to his face, and stuck two of the fingers into his own mouth. With a vile pop he pulled the fingers back out, shuddering and groaning.

“WHAT THE F-*ding*-K IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Gangle shrieked.

“Heh, sorry sweety, I ain’t got that kind of time right now. But I do have one thing to add now that I’ve got your attention. If you really wanna keep denying what I know, why don’t you think real hard about the time you borrowed that roll of cloth from Dollface.” Before Gangle could say anything (not that she felt like saying much after that gut wrenching display) Jax, in one smooth motion, swiped the knife off the table and with a twirl brought the blade straight down onto Gangle’s right arm that had been resting on the table. The edge of the blade dug straight into the wood, severing her ribbon about halfway up the limb cleanly.

She felt the ringing in her mind, louder than before, a thousand times, a million times louder. The horror rendered her whole body cold, she felt like she was freezing to death for an eternity in an instant. But in reality, it took less than a full second for the fiery agony to shoot straight through her. She didn’t know how long she had been screaming, she didn’t even remember falling out of the chair, but eventually the burning torture numbed into a mere dull suffering. She finally opened her eyes, seeing Jax squatting in front of her through her tears. He was playing with the knife in his hands. He stood up and leaned back, a sickening cackle echoed from him through the store room. Once he finally finished reveling in his cruelty, he pulled open his pocket and dropped the knife in before turning to walk away.

“Welp, even if I haven’t gotten through to you just yet, at least I got a good show out of this. See’ya later, babe!” He yelled to Gangle before tossing the loose fragment of her arm onto the ground, all the way on the other side of the room, before he disappeared through what must have been a door hidden in the darkness between torches.

And now she was alone, wounded and sobbing, in a dark cold room and laying on a hard rough floor. She realized she was numb, she had even stopped crying, laying in utter silence alone on the ground like discarded trash. She felt hopeless, lost, “Is this what it feels like to start abstracting?”  She wondered to herself, “No… I'm not giving up… I can’t give up, no matter what,” She steeled herself, she thought of the others, how they… how Zooble wouldn’t give up in this situation… at least that’s what she tried to use to motivate herself; She was ashamed to admit to herself that her resolve was less bravery and more a desperate baser fear of her own demise, it made her feel even more like an injured animal. But that instinctual desperation gave her the motivation to drag herself to the nearest stack of piled bags and use her remaining arm to drag herself off the floor. The effort was agonizing, but at least it distracted her from her own fear. She was unsteady but on her feet, she shakily waddled over to the shred of her own limb. Holding one end in her mouth and the other in her hand, she tied the slip of ribbon back onto its stump; It wouldn’t really do anything to help her, and it was obvious just by looking that it wasn’t really attached, but she really didn’t want to worry about carrying it. Tying the knot sent a shock through her once again, though the sudden burst of pain knocked her out of her numb and dazed state. Still in pain but mentally clear, she walked over and gathered the chunks of her mask. She didn’t really need them but she still felt the need to bring them with her, either as evidence or out of emotional attachment, at the very least bringing them along brought her a small comfort in some way.

She walked on shaky legs towards the spot Jax had vanished into, she hated the idea of having to follow behind him but it seemed to be the only way out. After a few seconds of searching in the dark, she finally found the handle for the door out. Opening it with one arm full of mask pieces was difficult but she managed. She hobbled down the stark stone hallway, acutely aware of her surroundings in case Jax was waiting somewhere in the dark, searching for any sign of someone who could help her. The only sound in the dim corridor was the gentle patter of her own uneven steps as she made her way to a set of stone steps. After she made it to the top of the u-shaped staircase, she found herself in a much more inviting hall; Curtained windows allowed grey-blue wintery sunlight through, the floors once again fine wood planks instead of harsh stone slabs, but the most heartening sight of all was the moving shadows visible in the creeping light coming from under one of the doors.

The others.

Chapter Text

“…are we gonna…” Muffled voices came from behind the door as Gangle limped towards it, it sounded like… Pomni?

“Grab that chair.” Closer still she drew, now able to hear much more clearly; that was Ragatha speaking.

“You get that side and we can probably lift her high enough to get it.” Gangle heard Zooble speak from behind the door as she finally got close enough to open it; she fumbled with the door, not even caring about the errant shard or two of her mask slipping from her grasp as she finally swung it open. The door opened to reveal Pomni balancing on a chair being lifted into the air by Zooble and Ragatha, she was reaching for some kind of silver key wedged into the ceiling of the room. Zooble was facing the door and therefore the first to notice Gangle standing in the doorway. Their eyes went wide and they quickly lowered the chair, the unsteadied Pomni falling into a seated position, Ragatha not strong enough to do anything but help set it down.

“Zooble, what the heck, why did you-” Ragatha called out to her fellow circus member in confused annoyance only to be shocked into silence when, upon following Zooble across the room with her gaze, she saw the obviously injured Gangle struggling to stand in the doorway.

“Oh- oh my god!” Pomni gasped as she to looked at the door and saw Zooble helping to steady the wobbly ribbon woman.

“Ahh! Gangle, when did you get here?” Kinger, who had been in the corner out of sight from the doorway, shouted as he peaked from behind the open door at all the commotion. Gangle barely shifted her eyes to look at the chess piece while Zooble helped her walk to a cushy reading chair, too drained to even be shocked at the sudden shouting.

After sitting Gangle down, Zooble was the first to ask the most obvious question, “What happened to you?”

Gangle could only croak out her answer, exhausted after everything as she was, “it… was… Jax.”

The answer sent waves through the crowd, Kinger’s eyes went wide, Ragatha gasped as she brought a hand to her mouth, and Pomni furrowed her brow in surprise. Both, somehow, the biggest and most subdued reaction came from Zooble as their face went stoic and their fist clenched so tightly as to send trembles up their entire arm. The varied reactions were interrupted by a thud and clatter as the doors to the large wardrobe to the side of the study room shook, followed by a groan. A groan in a voice that Gangle recognized, the sound twisting her hypothetical stomach into disgusted knots.

“Wuh?... HEY! Did someone finally wander in here? Let me out!” Shouted a muffled Jax from behind the now rattling doors of a large wardrobe against the far wall. Pomni, being the closest, reached over and lifted the overdesigned gold hook that held the door handles together. As soon as the simple latch was flipped free of the door handles Jax came tumbling face-first out of the wardrobe, dusty rags and well-worn brooms and dusters came clattering out onto the ground alongside him.

“You should have left him to rot in there!” Zooble yelled out, their need to stay by Gangle to help them overpowering their desire to attack Jax.

“Jeeze, Zoobie I know ya don’t like me but…” Jax started to defend himself as he jumped to his feet and began dusting himself off, his voice trailing off for a second as he looked over the room and locked eyes with Gangle’s glare, “…Woah, Ribbons, what the heck happened to you? Fall into a blender or something?”

Gangle felt a roiling heat welling within herself as witnessed Jax feign ignorance towards her injuries, his usual smarmy grin plastered on his face, the audacity to ask “What happened?” knowing full well he was the one that brutalized her. She slipped her good arm past the armrest of her chair and snaked it towards the first thing she could, settling on a small metal candlestick holder, before letting out a wordless shout and tossing it at Jax with all that remained of her might. Jax barely managed to jump to the side, avoiding the makeshift projectile before it crashed into the window beside the wardrobe, smashing a hole in the glass. The incredulous stares from the rest of the circus members brought her back to her senses, suddenly felling very self-conscious about her own anger. But one errant glance at Jax, still inspecting the broken window and dodged projectile with a smirk, was all it took to force a hateful glare back onto her face.

“Sheesh, the one time I actually try and show concern and this,” Jax gestured at the candlestick laying surrounded by glass shards, “is what I get? Hmph,” he huffed out, planting his fists on his hips in supposed indignation “last time I try and be nice to you, crybaby.” He cocked his head over his shoulder to glance at her, his eyes meeting her glare that seemed like it would bore straight through his skull if she tried just a little harder.

Gangle felt her eye twitch, “Be nice!? You are the one who did this to me!” She yelled across the room, waving her limply tied on arm for emphasis. It was act of emotion that she immediately regretted, the numb wound flaring with pain upon her harsh movement. She hissed and dropped her arm back to her side, but aside from a grimace, her glare never wavered. The others turned their looks towards Jax expectantly, Zooble in particular doing their personal best to match Gangle’s intensity towards the rabbit.

Jax looked around the room at the others, his grin dropping and his eyes widening into a look of surprise, before turning to one of apparent annoyance as he looked at Gangle, “Okay look, crybaby, I admitted to trashing your room after you stole from me, but that doesn’t mean you can go around blaming me for every little thing that goes wrong for you!”

“You’re a monster! You jumped me in some storage room and TORTURED ME! YOU CUT MY GOD DA-*glass breaking*-ED ARM OFF YOU BA-*clapping*-RD!” Gangle shrieked back, her anger only building as she yelled. Once she finished talking the room was drowned in a deafening silence, the only thing audible in the room was her own gasping breaths as she tried in vain to calm herself down.

“Okay, first off,” Jax broke the silence before anyone else, “I don’t know what you take me for because, sure, I mess with people, yeah, but friggin torture?! I’ll admit I'm a jerk, and I don’t care who knows or thinks that, but christ, you try’na say that I'm going around… what? Tying people up and chopping them apart? Do I need to remind everyone that you are the one here who has directly admitted to slicing someone up?” Gangle couldn’t help but notice Pomni and Ragatha share unsure glances, “And secondly, how could I have done any of these supposed atrocities when I’ve been locked in a dresser for the last who knows how long?” Jax leaned forward and cocked his eyebrows interrogatively.

“The only thing Gangle ever admitted to,” Zooble began speaking before Gangle could, an accusatory finger aimed at the indignant rabbit, “was defending herself from YOU!”

“Pfft,” Jax straightened up and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes before he continued, “because slicing my face off was a totally reasonable react- WOAH!”

“Not done talking, jerka-*ding*-s,” Zooble spat out, their arm still extended from tossing a book from a nearby shelf to silence Jax, “to answer your second question, the bunch of us only just found this room. There’s tons of time where you could have done all that awful sh-*crinkle*-t and then set off whatever stupid trap that locked you in there!”

“That’s exactly what he must have done,” Gangle added, “he left right after he was done mutilating me, and I… I think I passed out just after that,” she looked at the others as she spoke, before turning back to Jax to finish, “That seems like plenty of time for you to head upstairs and get caught in whatever trap, and then for the others to show up afterwards.”

“Sure, fine, I can’t prove that I wandered in here, found a key, and while I was trying to hide it to waste everyone’s time for fun I got flung into the wardrobe and locked up. BUT… you can’t exactly prove that I did… that… to you… can ya?” Jax tilted his head and smirked as he finished his rebuttal.

“What proof do I need?!” Gangle yelled back, “Do any of you really think that Caine would program something this vicious into the mansion?” She once again raised her limp arm (though gentler this time) to emphasize her plea to the others in the room.

Ragatha nervously fidgeted, brushing her palm up and down her own arm, “Some of the things we’ve run into do seem like they would really hurt,” Ragatha’s eye swung between Jax and Gangle before she shook her head, “but she’s right, nothing that would cause that sort of damage… just like trapdoors and swinging things to knock you around.”

“WAIT!” All eyes were suddenly on Pomni, who had been silently contemplating with her hand on her chin, “I have an idea,” she walked up to Jax, “how exactly did you get locked in the wardrobe?”

“Like I said, I was wandering around for any interesting souvenirs when I found one of those exit keys. I figured it would be funny to hide it again and watch you guys get all annoyed trying to find it,” he said with a palms up shrug and a smirk, “but while I was lookin around for somewhere to put it I stepped around… here somewhere,” Jax gestured vaguely with his palm towards a bunch of floorboards that, upon a closer look, looked a bit looser than the surrounding boards, “and I got flung back into the stupid dresser or whatever…” he glanced upwards before pointing at the ceiling with his thumb, “and I guess I tossed the key up there.”

Pomni lowered herself onto her knees and began feeling around the edges of the boards Jax had pointed out, “I thought of something, Kinger, you remember that trap we ran into on the third floor?”

“THERE ARE TRAPS IN THIS PLACE?!” Kinger shouted back.

“…Ragatha, remember that trap I told you me and Kinger ran into on the third floor?” Pomni re-aimed her question with little reaction to the chess pieces outburst.

“Huh- oh- uh, yeah,” the doll woman shook her head to regain her wits, “a big padded bat swung from the ceiling or something, right?”

“Yeah, and when it hit one of the walls,” Pomni continued as she kept searching around the floorboards, “it knocked one of the panels loose, and it showed… us… this!” Pomni yelled in triumph as she pulled up a board beside the ones Jax had pointed at, revealing a small computer screen with text on it.

The others leaned in to look at the screen, on its dark green screen was text that read,

“Trap: Launcher

 Status: Fired

Activated by: Jax

Activation time: 04:37”

“Why would Caine keep track of information like this?” Ragatha pondered aloud.

“He probably uses this data to keep track of who went where, that way he can fine tune the layout of the mansion if he ever decides to use this adventure again,” replied the fleetingly cognizant Kinger before he returned to blankly staring at the rest of the people in the room.

“Who cares why he does anything; what time is it right now?” Jax, huffed as he stomped over to a nearby desk. The others watched intently as he scanned over it, before finally grabbing at a wooden object and tilting it up. Gangle felt a chill run through her as Jax’s frown slowly morphed into a satisfied smirk. With a sharp twist he rotated the dusty desk clock around to face everyone else in the room.

The hands across the face of the old clock pointed out the time: 8:39

A hush blanketed the room as all eyes in the room fell on Gangle, and she felt herself shrinking under their collective gaze, “How… how did… how…” was all she could think to herself, unsure as to how this was happening.

“Welp,” Jax started with a contented sigh, “I guess that settles that, doesn’t it?” He looked around at the others before focusing his sight on Gangle, his stare enough to drag the woman out of her own head, “I mean, come on, I'm willing to bet there’s no way it’s been longer than four hours since you got separated from these guys, right? Eh, what about you four,” he shifted his glance onto Zooble and the others, “how long would you reckon it’s been since you got split up from the ribbon who cried rabbit over here?”

The rest of the circus members were silent until, eventually, Ragatha spoke up, “It… it couldn’t have been longer than… an hour, at the absolute most.”

“WAIT!” Gangle yelled out, finally aware enough to try and defend herself, “What if- what if heeeee… tampered with the clock? What if he-”

“Gangle please!” Ragatha interrupted forcefully, “It’s plain to see that that clock hadn’t been touched before any of us got here,” a quick glance and Gangle found herself unable to disagree, the dust had only been disturbed in the exact spots Jax had touched, “he didn’t do anything to it, and the timing of all these supposed events do not line up in the slightest… Gangle,” nothing could have prepared her for the crushing weight of Ragatha’s next words, “please tell us what really happened.”

“What really happened?” the request slammed against the edges of her mind, it wasn’t enough that they didn’t believe her, now they actually thought that she was-

“Where do you get the FU-*roar of flame*-NG NERVE?!” everyone in the room flinched at Zooble’s sudden outburst, “You’re gonna look at her, like THIS, and call her a LIAR?!”

Ragatha recoiled at the accusation, hands in front of her chest in surrender, “No, no, no, I’m not calling her a liar,” she verbally backpedaled in step with her actual feet, trying to put more distance between herself and the stationary zooble, “I just meant that, maybe she- uh… maybe she just got confused, like you said she’s hurt bad. What if it was just an NPC or something that she confused for Jax?” She gave a nervous grin and shrug with her proposed explanation.

To the surprise of everyone in the room, Pomni stepped forward. The diminutive jester planted her feet between the two arguers and shot a stern look at Zooble, who in turn calmly returned the glare, “Look Zooble, I get you care about Gangle, but that doesn’t mean you can attack Ragatha for just trying to get the full story.”

“Is that what calling someone a liar is? Just getting the full story?” Zooble asked, their words encased in icy sarcasm, “I just don’t get how after all these years and everything he’s done,” they aimed a spiteful finger at Jax, who just scowled harder in response, “why is it so hard to believe that he’s gone off the deep end, why does he get ANY benefit of the doubt and Gangle gets none, WHY are you taking HIS side in this?!”

“I’m not taking his side; I'm just trying to hear everyone out!” Ragatha plead back.

“YES, YOU ARE,” everyone in the room turned to look at Gangle, the anger and misery within her had boiled over and she couldn’t hold it back any longer, “YOU ARE TAKING HIS SIDE, YOU’VE BEEN TAKING HIS SIDE SINCE THE DAY HE TRASHED MY ROOM. THE BOTH OF YOU HAVE!” she unleashed a wordless scream before smacking a lamp off the table next to her, the shattering of glass echoing in the dusty room, “He attacks me in MY OWN ROOM, and YOU,” she jabbed her good arm out into the air, pointing it straight at Ragatha, “couldn’t stop worrying about him the whole time! Then after all that, YOU,” She adjusted her arm to aim it at Pomni, “go and accuse me of being A THIEF, the very next day!”

Zooble shook their head in confusion, shocked at that particular tidbit of information they were hearing for the first time.

“I have been attacked two times in just as many days,” Gangle continued, slamming her balled up fist onto the armrest of her seat, her heavy breaths and the tears flowing down her face born of anger instead of misery, “and SO FAR, only one person that calls themselves my friend in this awful circus, has done anything AT ALL TO HELP ME!”

The only sound in the entire room was Gangle’s own labored shaky breathing. Pomni rocked on her heels, eyes bouncing around the room, desperate to look at anything that wasn’t Gangle or Zooble. Ragatha stood still, fidgeting in place and brushing her palm up and down her own arm, her head drooping downward, her woolen red hair covering her face. As Gangle came down from the high of her own cathartic venting, she found the feeling quickly replaced with searing guilt. She found herself rapidly formulating an apology in her head, hoping she could get any goodwill back from the others after her outburst.

“I’m sorry,” Ragatha’s words derailed her train of thought, all eyes turned to her for once, “you’re right,” she sniffled and raised her head, revealing a dark streak of wet going down her face under her eye, “I promise I wasn’t trying to pick a side, but you’re right, I’ve only helped one person in this conflict.”

Any sort of satisfaction Gangle could have gained from being directly told she was right was crushed under the weight of her own guilt for lashing out.

“Let’s just get this key and then,” Ragatha looked back at Jax, “we are leaving.”

“What, is this the last one we need to leave?” Jax felt the need to ask as he felt directly addressed.

“No, it isn’t, I mean that we are getting this key,” she pointed to the ceiling as her overall demeanor resolidified, “and then we,” she quickly shifted her finger between Kinger, herself, Pomni, and Jax, “are leaving this room to look for the rest, Gangle deserves rest and I doubt Zooble would leave her side right now even if she wanted to.”

“Pfft, oh boohoo,” Jax sarcastically rubbed the sides of his fists under his eyes, “this is how it always ends up with you dweebs ya know? Anytime anything goes wrong for her, all crybaby has to do is turn on the waterworks and suddenly she’s the most important person in the room.”

“Jax, don’t be difficult,” Ragatha responded coolly, “just help us get this key so we can be done with all this mess.”

“She’s complaining about unfair treatment, so your response is to treat me unfairly? I mean, gimme a break here, her story doesn’t add up at all!” Jax’s indignation was met with nothing but a continuous stern gaze from Ragatha while Pomni was busy scooting the chair back under the key, “UGH- FINE, lets get the stupid key and get out of this stupid mansion!”

Jax stomped over to the center of the room and, after shoving the chair aside with his foot (and Pomni with it), he crouched ever so slightly before leaping up and snagging it out of the high ceiling. One of the advantages of being in a rabbit body, it would seem. He snidely flicked the key at Ragatha, who clapped her hand over it when it collided with her chest. Gangle watched in silence as the others slowly shuffled out of the room, Jax lagging behind ever so slightly. Zooble had stepped to the other side of the room to grab another cushioned chair so they could sit down by Gangle. With everyone’s backs to them, Jax stopped in front of Gangle for just a moment. He glared down at her before his face flashed into a cruel grin as he lifted something out of his overalls pocket.

A fishing wire and hook.

Small enough to fit through the cracks in a shut door, strong enough to maneuver a latch open or closed…

Gangle didn’t even have time to give a proper reaction before the rabbit’s smile fell back into a scowl, and he stuffed his surprise back into his pocket. Jax calmly stepped out with the others, disappearing beyond the doorframe with everyone else who had left the room.

Gangle was left silently sputtering at Jax’s audacity, to play dumb so hard only to arrogantly give up the ghost just to taunt her. Her shock was interrupted by a large clunk on the floor, Zooble had set down another chair opposite the one she was already sitting upon. They stepped past her, looking back as they closed the door to the study, “Something wrong? He didn’t say anything to you, did he?”

She wanted to tell them about the reveal Jax had done, but she knew with how meticulous he was up to this point that chances were he disposed of it as soon as he was out of sight. She had made too many unprovable accusations today already; she didn’t want to mess up what little support her outburst had finally gained for her, “N- no, I just… didn’t like him being that close to me again.”

“After what you say he did, I get it,” Zooble accepted the answer before sitting down across from Gangle.

“What I… say… he did?” Gangle couldn’t help but notice the choice of words, but she decided to just keep listening to Zooble.

“Props for advocating for yourself, you’ve been getting a lot more assertive since all this started,” Zooble spoke with an uncertain but positive look in their eyes, “not… that you going through all this is good or anything. But… ya’know that saying about… uh… clouds and silver linings or whatever?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Gangle said, unable to avoid hanging her head in guilt as she made a mental note to apologize for her outburst after the adventure, “I feel real bad about blowing up at Ragatha and Pomni though.”

“Far as I’m concerned, you didn’t say anything wrong,” Zooble asserted, “What was that about being accused of thieving, though?”

“Even if I meant what I said, I wish I hadn’t said it like that… I let my… emotions get the better of me, I guess, and the thief thing,” Gangle looked aside at nothing in particular, again guilty for how she handled the situation, “it- it wasn’t anything that big, just another one of Jax’s tricks, he made Pomni suspicious with his stupid planted book. That was all, she already apologized, and… I… brought it back up… and used it against… her,” Gangle’s head fell further and further, her tears and guilt ramping up in equal measure.

“Hey, hey,” Zooble waved to try and pull her out of her spiral, “okay, maybe you didn’t handle the situation exactly how you wanted to, but at least you finally got them to do something. Like I said, you didn’t say anything wrong, they hadn’t done anything to help you… sometimes you gotta yell at your friends to get them to realize they’re being shi-*guitar riff*-y.”

She still intended on apologizing later, but she did see the sense in Zooble’s words. She lifted her head back up a bit to look her friend in the eyes as she spoke, a small smile on her face, “Thank you… for being there for me, I mean. Thank you for believing me.”

“Yeah, you got it,” Zooble relaxed back in their chair as they talked, seemingly satisfied with the little lift in Gangle’s mood, “I mean… I get why it’s hard for them to swallow.”

“Huh?” Gangle asked, her worry about Zooble’s earlier words returning in full force.

Zooble’s eyes went wide, they must have understood the implications of their statement, “I just mean… that like- uh…” they spluttered out, “for all the awful things he’s done, he’s only ever been a nuisance and not much else. So suddenly, you come out saying he’s gone full violent monster… I get why they would want proof.”

“You do believe me… right?” Gangle dreaded having to ask, but she had to know for sure.

Zooble swallowed hard as they looked around the room, unwilling to look Gangle in the eyes as they thought of how to answer, “Y- I- Okay… I want to believe you,” Gangle couldn’t hold back her frown at the words, “I do believe you that Jax did something, I just… I know he trashed your room, and I don’t doubt you for a second that he planted that stupid little book of his. And I do believe you that Jax attacked you, I don’t understand why it’s so hard for them to imagine him getting worse after you finally fought back, but as much as I do believe you… I really do only have your word to go on. You understand why that makes it a little harder… right?”

Gangle pushed down her feelings at Zooble’s words, they made a lot of sense. Telling the truth or not, her word alone could only go so far with the others, “You’re right, I get it… I guess I am asking a lot of you. Asking you to just take me at my word and all.”

“Hey, it’s not a big deal, it may not be enough for the others but it’s more than enough for me, I trust you,” Zooble’s eyes expressed that they would have a smile on their face if they could, and a comforting one at that.

Those words filled Gangle with warmth, and she felt a burning desire filling her. A loud voice was shouting within her to let it all out, to tell Zooble how she felt, to thank her for everything they’d ever done for her, to tell them how they were one of the only things helping her stay sane in this digital nightmare.  But she was so tired, and more importantly she was so scared. After everything that had happened that day, she didn’t know if she would be able to handle her feelings going unrequited on top of it all. So she silenced the voice, telling herself that another opportunity would come, a better time with a braver her. For now, she settled for simply showing appreciation for Zooble’s friendship, “Thank you, that means a lot to me.”

“So, once this stupid trip is over and Caine patches you up,” Zooble awkwardly pointed at Gangle’s limp arm, “wanna head to the music room?”

The music room, dubbed so by the pair due to the music note wallpaper it had, a small secluded storage room of sorts that the two of them found while wandering around the circus together one day ages ago. It quickly became a favorite place for them to sneak off to whenever the chaos of the circus became too much to handle.

“And the best part is no one else knows about it,” Gangle thought to herself with a weak but earnest smile, “Definitely.”

“Awesome…” Zooble looked like they were carefully considering their next words, “and I guess… I can go on more of these stupid adventures… to make sure you don’t end up alone with that creep again, ya’know?” they grumbled out, their eye rolls and shrugs betrayed the reluctance in their offer, but their worry for their friend seemed to take precedence.

“Thank you,” Gangle once again wanted to say more than she had the strength for, but at least she could keep doing her best to show her appreciation. After what felt like a few moments of friendly chatter between the two, the pair were surprised by a distant sound; it sounded like some sort of… cheering and bells?

“Think that means they got the exit open?” Zooble asked, “Want to go check it out?”

Gangle hadn’t realized how long their conversation had been going on it seemed, “Yeah,” she said as she stood up from her chair, her legs trembled in spite of the rest she had managed to get.

“Need some help?” Zooble asked, holding out their hand.

“Thanks,” Gange nodded simply as they took their hand, shakily standing from the chair with assistance; though less unsteadily than when they had first limped into the room.

“And those?” Zooble nodded in the direction of the shards of mask that were spread on the table and floor beside the seat.

“I… I don’t think I need them,” Gangle mumbled back, a bit bashful, “to be real, I don’t even know why I bothered bringing them with me. I probably wasn’t thinking straight after what… happened.”

The two walked down the lonely halls of the mansion in silence, Gangle holding onto her limp arm to stop it from moving too much and hurting. After a few hallways and a staircase, they found themselves turning a corner back into the anteroom in which this whole wretched adventure began. The others, minus an obvious someone, turned to greet them. The lock was laying on the ground besides the chains that once held it in place, and as Zooble and Gangle got closer a portal back to the circus’s main room opened up. Jax was the first to stomp through, clearly still playing upset for being “blamed for something he didn’t do” as he would put it, the other three calmly stepped in behind him, followed by the two remaining.

The group barely had time to finish walking through the portal before Caine fluttered in and greeted them with some nonsense title for the party; Gangle paid little attention, instead just waiting for him to notice her. Sure enough, with a simple snap of his fingers her arm and mask were good as new, not that the pain she was in had been instantly taken care of though. But it, combined with her rest in the admittedly comfortable reading chair, was enough to let her walk without assistance. As the others sat at the table (and Jax began crudely tearing at a chicken leg, in an obvious show of disgruntlement) her and Zooble walked away in silence, not that the others even tried to question them after everything that had happened that day. Through the winding halls of the circus they walked, past the dorms and into the maze of unmarked doors until eventually coming to the one they were looking for. After everything, Gangle was relieved to finally feel a sense of normalcy (as normal as the circus could get) as her and Zooble dug through the boxes to gather the things they used to relax in their little hidden hovel. A few quick sketches of whatever calming idea came to mind while Zooble fished through the various crates in the room for something to busy themselves, it was a comforting silence that filled the room. And so, it went like that for however long it took for the lights to get low in the main hall, as they could see from under the door, and cued them to put their time wasters away and leave the music room.

With silent waves and contented smiles, the pair parted ways and went back to their respective rooms, after they both looked into Gangle’s room to check for wayward rabbits of course. Gangle still wished she had been able to really talk things out with Zooble, but she figured making it out of that mansion after Jax’s ambush, plus finally managing to convince Ragatha to take her side for once, was more than enough victory for one day.

“Door locked, table in front of it… that should be enough,” she thought to herself as she laid back in bed, suddenly horribly aware how tired she was after it all. In much less time than she expected she was asleep, and shockingly she slept quite calmly through the night.

The next few weeks in the circus were very odd for Gangle, as it seemed Jax had changed tactics. She couldn’t guess why, maybe it was just to keep her guessing, but she definitely wasn’t going to complain that he had stopped with his violent assaults for the time being. Instead, he seemed focused on just messing with her in small ways, a drawing going missing from her sketchpad after she stepped away from it, scribbles on sketches she had left lying around for a moment, her pencil vanishing only to reappear after she got back with a new one and such other such little annoyances. And she knew it was him, he made sure she did, always watching her from a distance, waiting to give her his jerkass smirk from around a corner while he peeked out like a creep. Of course, with her luck, no one else was ever a witness to these little pokes and jabs. She didn’t want to push what little trust she had gotten from Ragatha and the others, so she was thankful she had Zooble to confide with. She had caught herself ranting about the little things he was doing and how mad she was no one else seemed to notice him to more than she meant to, but at least Zooble trusted her, at least Zooble took her word, at least she had one person to vent to.

After a few weeks of these little teases and unfunny jokes they eventually just… stopped. Gangle gave it a couple days just to make sure but… yeah, she wasn’t noticing anything out of the ordinary anymore. Jax had grown distant and cold rather than mocking, going back to his “I’m the real victim here” act he liked playing out in front of the others whenever he was in the same room as her.

“Whatever, so long as he keeps leaving me alone,” Gangle thought to herself as she lay awake in her bed, “maybe that jerk finally realized I wasn’t going to just roll over for him anymore, yeah… yeah I bet that’s it,” she patted herself on the back mentally as she sat up, a confident smile on her face, “he went that far to push me back into line, and it didn’t work. Bet he’s been fuming in his room these last few days,” her confident smile morphed into a satisfied smirk. After a few moments of reveling in her surmised victory an idea crossed her mind, “I should celebrate,” she whispered to herself before hopping off her bed.

Stepping out into the dark hall, she realized she had no idea what time it was. She hadn’t been asleep that long she didn’t think, but in the circus, you pretty much knew when it was day and when it was night and that was the entirety of your information. But still, she trudged on, she was determined to waltz into the kitchen and grab something sweet. After a few minutes of walking, she finally found herself in the main hall, almost totally dark to the point where she couldn’t see the other end of the giant room. But it didn’t matter, she knew where the kitchen was and she felt surer of herself than she had in ages.

But as the old adage goes, overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer…

Onward she marched across the dark gigantic room, stepping carefully to avoid pillars and a few scattered toys in the dark… blissfully unaware of the gloved hand reaching out to her from the shadows of one of the pillars until…

“AHHMM,” Gangle screamed out as best she could with a hand clasped over her mouth, interrupted with a grunt as she was yanked back against the pillar. His eyes almost shone in the darkness of the giant room, yellow spotlights cutting through the shadows.

Jax.

“You just love making me sit in the dark forever, don’t’chya, sweetheart?” He whispered at Gangle, a sickeningly saccharine tone intruding upon her hearing, “But I figured if I backed off, you’d get… sloppy, you’ve been so dang cautious since our get together in the mansion,” he giggled at the memories before continuing, “so, cutie, you ready to finally play nice?” he asked as he slid his hand off her mouth.

“F-*pop*-K… OFF!” Gangle spat defiantly at Jax, her hand snaking down to the ground, hers and Jax’s eyes locked on each other.

“Heh, I like the sass, but that ain’t a no now, is it?” He leaned in closer to her, his simulated shaky breath hot on her face, “Gotta be totally honest, right now… I don’t really think a no would stop me…” he continued holding her head against the pillar as he leaned ever closer, a disgustingly sensual half lidded expression on his face.

Gangle felt like puking, the horrid things he was saying and doing, but she still felt strong… and she just found what she was searching for. Before Jax could do… whatever he had planned, Gangle wrapped her ribbon around a small colorful wooden cube and swung the flat of it into the side of Jax’s face. He stumbled back, holding onto his cheek with both hands, as Gangle stood her ground staring down the rabbit.

After a few seconds of silence, Jax let out a chuckle before stomping his foot and speaking, “Hooie, attagirl!” Gangle was taken aback by his reaction; had he not been bluffing about wanting her to fight back? “But your technique needs a little work,” He said as he straightened up and started walking towards her, “next time try angling it a little,” he got right up in front of her again, she only glared harder, “if you tilt it a bit you could catch me with the corner,” he leaned in, his smile had grown deranged and his voice reeked of barely contained excitement, “that way you could do some real damage!”

“You’re sick in the head,” Gangle spoke with force, unwilling to raise her voice, determined to not let her get the rise out of her he obviously wanted.

Jax just stared for a few moments, his face frozen in that wretched excited grin, like that of a carnivore that had just snuck into butcher shop after hours.

Gangle didn’t know how long they had been in this standoff, it could have been minutes, it could have been an hour, but eventually the standstill came to a startling end.

His ears twitched… “By the way, ribbons,” he whispered, “you gotta get better at hiding things.”

Gangle didn’t have time to parse his question before, without warning, Jax lunged at her, covering her mouth and pressing her against the pillar with his body. He forced his face against her forehead and… started kissing her? Gangle was wracked with disgust, shocked at this turn of events, her body acted on instinct raising the block in her hand and swinging it down harder than she had swung anything she could remember. But as soon as her arm went up, Jax pulled back, just a step, and twisted himself. He ducked and turned as if aiming her swing for her… right at the back of his head. The block made contact with a wet crack and, unlike before, Jax actually let out a shout of pain before stumbling away from Gangle out of the shadow of the pillar and dropping to his knees on the floor of the dimly lit main room. Twisting as he fell, he landed on his side, both hand gripping the back of his head as he continued groaning out in pain, and curled into the fetal position.

“Maybe he overestimated himself, maybe he underestimated me,” Gangle thought to herself as she saw the scene unfold, “jerk, guess you got what you wanted didn’t you.”

“OH MY GOD! JAX, WHAT HAPPENED?!” Ragatha yelled out.

Gangle felt her body fill with ice, her nonexistent blood running cold as she realized what was happening, “Did he know- Was this… his plan?! No, no, no, no! How am I going to explain this? He attacked me again I can just… no… there’s no way they’ll believe me in a situation like this, I'm not hurt, he’s made it look like he got hit from behind… oh god no,” her mind was running a mile per second as she heard Ragatha running across the main room, the doll woman’s nightly run for a late night snack having led her to stumble upon an awful sight, “and she’ll blame me for it… should I run? If she sees me run then she’ll think I'm guilty no doubt, if I stay maybe I can explain, but will I be able-”

“G-Gangle?!” Gangle’s thoughts were cut short by Ragatha calling out to her, the woman having reached Jax while she was lost in her own worries. And now, from her kneeling position besides Jax, she was looking right at Gangle, standing in the shadows, holding a wooden block… stained with black on the corner.

A drip of liquid from the cube shook Gangle awake, causing her to quickly glance at the cube before dropping it in shock, “I… why would I… did I actually aim for…”

“Gangle, what did you do?” Ragatha sounded like she was going to burst into tears, an echo of betrayal behind her voice.

“Urgh! WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE SHE DID?!” Jax yelled out from the ground, his accusation once more pulling Gangle out of her thoughts, “I was just trying to get something to drink… then that PSYCHO,” he thrust a black stained finger at Gangle, “jumped me!” he groaned and curled back up, holding his head, after pleading his case.

Gangle could feel the tears welling up inside her, she desperately wrapped her own arms around her face, trying as hard as she could to stop her mask from slipping off. It wouldn’t help her either way but she was too panicked to think of that. Her eyes flicked between Ragatha, then Jax, and then the block on the ground she had just struck him with. In the midst of her panic, she could only think of one thing to do, and so she did.

She ran, bolting for her own room as fast as she could, tears running down her face as she ignored the calls of Ragatha from behind her. She was convinced nothing she could say would help her case, she was furious at herself for falling for his tricks, disappointed in herself for stooping to his level. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the others, what would they think when Ragatha told them what she saw, she had no doubts she would and she had no clue what to do anymore. Eventually her weeping scramble brought her to her room and she didn’t hesitate to throw the door open and slam it shut behind herself. She locked and blocked it, sobbing the entire time, before she tossed herself onto her bed and wept. Everything she had done, all the trust she had fought for, gone in an instant she had no doubt.

Chapter Text

There’s an old saying of sorts that essentially says, “No matter how awful everything is for you, the sun will still rise in the morning,” to some this means that there is always another day to look forward to, and others… it’s just another way to say just how much reality doesn’t care about your problems. As she wept in her bed Gangle couldn’t help but notice that this saying still applied even in this digital nightmare she was trapped inside. The fake sunlight rising behind her rooms windows only reinforced for her how little anyone cared about her at the moment, or at least how much she assumed they did. She couldn’t see any other possibility than Ragatha telling everyone what had happened the night before at the breakfast table after everyone woke up, telling them about how she had attacked Jax, about how she was the aggressor, about how Jax was just an innocent victim who happened to be a bit of a jerk. She would have to face everyone eventually she figured, as she stumbled over to her door and pushed her desk out of its way. Slowly she peeked through her gently cracked open door, terrified of the possibility of a crowd gathered to confront her waiting outside her room, only to see an empty hall. She slunk through the halls, desperate to put off the inevitable, until she finally reached the huge arched door that led to the main room. Once again, she found herself peeking around a doorframe in fear, and once again, she saw no one.

“Where is every-”

“Hey.”

“AHH!” So caught up in her worries, she hadn’t heard Zooble walking down the hall behind her until they had called out.

“…sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Zooble mumbled out an apology, surprised at how jumpy Gangle was being, “but… uh, what are you doin sneaking around?”

“What? Sneaking? What do you mean?” Gangle couldn’t contain her nervous chuckle as she answered, “uhhh… Actually, I was hoping to run into you!”

“Oh,” Zooble had the tone of someone who just remembered something important, “Yeah… right… you wanna talk about that?”

“Yes! Yep… yup, yup,” Gangle fumbled her hands over each other, much too nervous to fully realize what Zooble had asked beyond wanting to talk.

“THERE YOU ARE, MY SNUFFLING SAUSAGE ROLLS,” Caine shouted as he abruptly appeared above the two, “I’ve been looking for you all morning! You two need to join the others on today’s SPLENDIFURIOUS ADVENTURE!”

The two stood in silence as Caine floated awkwardly in the air, frozen in a silent pose of excitement, before Gangle finally spoke up, “What… is th-”

“I'm glad you asked, my rambunctious ribbon,” Caine, suddenly animated again, yelled out as he jabbed his walking stick forward to point at Gangle, “today’s adventure is THE AMAZING AMUSEMENT PARK PARLAY!”

The two shared a nervous glance for a second before Zooble interjected, “You’re… you’re just out of ideas and sending everyone off to the park for the day, aren’t you?”

“Pfft, hah, pssh,” Caine puffed his chest as he hemmed, hawed, and scoffed before finally slumping his shoulders and mumbling, “…yes.”

The two once again shared a quick glance before looking back at Caine who continued, “Regardless, the wonderful rides and games of the circus’ park grounds should prove far more than mentally stimulating enough to keep you all busy while I perfect the finishing touches on my latest adventures!”

Before either Gangle or Zooble could say anything, Caine snapped his fingers and a portal opened beneath their feet, with a quick yelp of surprise the two found themselves standing in the center of the amusement park that stood beside the circus’ big top tent. Gangle was quick to scan the surroundings for the others and in the distance, she spotted them; the other circus members talking amongst themselves in a crowd of npcs. She at the very least could make out Ragatha and Kinger in the crowd and, unable to see Pomni or Jax anywhere, she figured everyone must be over there.

“If I can get ahead of this… if I can just explain what really happened before they have a chance to hear his version…” Gangle thought to herself, momentarily distracted by fireworks in the distance… fireworks that showed her exactly what she needed. Pointing at the Ferris wheel at the end of the park, and doing her best to subtly push Zooble along, she sputtered out, “That looks like a great place we can talk, nice and quiet compared to the rest of the park I bet!”

“Yeah, definitely,” Zooble agreed simply.

The two quickly made their way towards and onto the empty ride at the edge of the park, Gangle nervously waving at the wooden doll running the ride as the two sat in one of the passenger cars. Gangle did her best to conceal her anxiety as the ride slowly came to life which, given Zooble’s expression, she wasn’t doing a very good job at doing. She hadn’t even realized she had just been staring directly at Zooble in silence until they uncomfortably coughed into their hand to get her attention.

“So… you want to… talk about that… thing,” Zooble was now the anxious one it seemed, as they mumbled out.

“That thing? Oh no, did they already hear about last night? But if they’re willing to talk about it, maybe they want to get my side,” Gangle reasoned at a mile a minute, “unless… what if there’s something else?”

Before she could say anything however, the ride suddenly shook to a halt. The two were no longer spinning and they were very high off the ground.

“Uhm, well… at least this gives us more time to talk in peace,” Gangle tried to stay optimistic, mostly because she feared that doing anything else would give away just how scared she was of the proverbial blade hanging over her head in the form of Jax’s story.

“Yeah, that’s good, this conversation will be better in private anyway,” Zooble said with a strange melancholy in their voice, the tone stretching Gangle’s already frayed nerves, “Look, Gangle… you’re my best friend, really, and honestly some part of me is flattered but… this was a little creepy, man.”

Gangle’s nervous smile faded into a look of confusion and dread more and more with every word, and as Zooble pulled a piece of paper from who knows where while they spoke that dread turned into utter despair.

It was her drawing from the day Jax had wrecked her room, the day this horrid nightmare had started.

“I- I- how- that wasn’t me! It was-” Gangle sputtered out before Zooble interrupted.

“Oh my god, are you seriously about to blame Jax for this?!”

“It must have been him!”

“You expect me to believe he drew this? He can barely draw stick figures,” Zooble spoke with exasperation and disbelief coating their words.

“No, I don’t mean- he-” Gangle forced a deep breath out to try and get her words straight, “no I'm not saying he drew it.”

“So, you did draw this then?”

Gangle balked at the question, still more focused on how this situation had come about rather than actually listening to Zooble, “I- I- I- ohhhhh, this is all his-”

“Oh my god,” Zooble yelled out, interrupting Gangle, “I hate that jerk too, but you can’t just keep blaming him for every single thing that goes wrong in your life,” Gangle flinched at Zooble’s outburst, a look of confusion overtaking her face as their words reached her, “I don’t doubt for a second that he deserved what you did to him in your room, and I will never forgive him for whatever happened in that stupid manor, but then it felt like you started looking for thing to blame on him,” Gangle’s confusion only grew as Zooble continued, “I don’t know why- did you think you needed an excuse for me to hang out with you or something?”

Gangle managed to force out a response, “W-what are you talking…”

“I’m talking about how, for weeks, every little thing was him,” Zooble started talking, the pent up frustration in their voice probably much more evident than they meant for it to be, “If you lost your pencil, he snatched it, when it came back, he put it back to mess with you, a wrong line on your drawing, he did that while you weren’t looking, a drawing went missing, he swiped it, I really, really do want to believe you, because you’re my best friend and I really mean that! But christ, Gangle, it is getting exhausting hearing nothing but you complaining about how everything is Jax conspiring to ruin your life!”

Those final words forced a realization in Gangle, she truly had been putting every one of her problems on Zooble and Zooble alone. And even if she knew she was right about what was going on, Jax had done everything he could to make sure she knew it was actually him, Zooble didn’t know that, they only had her word to go off of, and she had pushed that as far as it could and then kept going for ages past that.

But she couldn’t stop herself, she needed to convince Zooble no matter what, or that’s what she felt in her current panicked state, at least.

She shook off her realization, her desire to be believed overwhelming her good sense, “Please Zooble you have to trust me, I didn’t do this.”

Zooble let out a simple sigh as they pressed a knuckle between their closed eyes, “Gangle please just be honest with me, I found a note in my room telling me to go to the music room,” Gangle’s eyes widened, and Zooble pointed at the drawing, “and that’s where I found this!”

Gangle heard a quiet rumbling on the roof of their passenger car.

“Look,” Zooble continued, stepping away from Gangle and leaning against the railing to look out onto the rest of the park, “I know this probably isn’t the answer you want to hear right now but I think we should spend some time apart…”

“But… but,” was all Gangle could push out.

Zooble let out another sigh, “You’re my best friend, and I mean that… but all this Jax stuff, and drawing something like that as a… confession, I guess? I just need some time to myself to think about… us, at the very least I'm not totally against the idea of-”

Zooble interrupted themself with a scream.

Time felt like it was moving at a quarter speed, Gangle couldn’t do anything but watch in stunned horror as Jax swung into the car from the roof, planting his feet against Zooble’s back and launching them out of the Ferris wheel with a dropkick.

He dropped against the floor of the gently rocking passenger car, Zooble’s scream fading into the distance, before looking up at Gangle with his trademark grin, “Now why did you do that?”

Jax stood up and dusted himself off, “Those npc morons are so easy to boss around, all I had to do was ask him to stop the ride once you two got high up enough, then all it took was a little signal to get you on this scrap heap…”

Gangle could just stare at him in horror as her comedy mask finally slipped from her face, breaking against the floor of the car, as what Jax just said truly sank in, Zooble didn’t believe her about Jax anymore… they would think…

“Why? How?” whimpered Gangle, desperate for any sort of answer, even though she knew nothing he told her could change anything.

Jax, now standing over Gangle, leaned towards her, a chuckle fluttering out of his mouth, “you really think a giant bundle of silk and a seven foot tall pile of misshapen accessories can go anywhere in this place without me noticing? As for the why, you should know by now,” he said before slowly his grin turned into a look of true surprise, “except… wow, either you have an awful memory or you are really good at lying to yourself, because it sounds like you really don’t get it yet; s’like I keep saying, I know what you are,” he leant even closer, “it seems I even know you better than you know you.”

Gangle’s emotions flared as they finally caught up to the situation, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT YOU MANIAC!”

Jax just giggled before finally saying something to the fuming woman seated in front of him, “fine… fine, since your so,” he shoved his hand against her face, pinning her against the back of her seat by her head as he shouted, “FORGETFUL… I’ll spell it out for you. You may have forgotten but I haven’t, years ago when your little loser self got stuck in here with the rest of us, that’s when it happened,” he let go of her face before continuing, “you didn’t know any of us well enough to want to get along with anyone, but you did know what was up well enough to know who to throw under the bus!”

Gangle only got more and more confused with each word.

“I keep telling you to really think about where you got that fabric from rags, but you seem to be a bad listener, but lucky for you, I saw the whole thing. Seriously, the shock on my face when I saw the crybaby little loser newbie slip her little ribbon hand,” he grabbed and shook one of her wrists for emphasis, which Gangle promptly ripped out of his grip, “under dollface’s door, open it up, and slip right in and right out with a bunch of fabric in her arms. Saw the whole thing myself, because like I said, you didn’t know us very well,” he leaned in once more, “you didn’t know how early I wake up every morning, for instance.”

Gangle’s mind was racing at the accusation, but the harder she thought about it, the more scared she became… she could remember what he was saying happened.

“But what really got me, hoo boy did I get surprised, was when, the next day, Ragatha was asking people about what happened to one of her rolls of fabric. And then who should chime in but that same little crybaby who jumped in to say, “I think I saw Jax coming out of your room last night”,” he said in an insulting impression of Gangle’s voice, “and color me shocked when they actually found the fabric in my room.”

Jax’s smile faded into a stone-faced stare as he got closer to Gangle with every word.

His forehead was pressed against Gangle’s as he continued speaking, staring straight into her eyes, “Because you knew us well enough at this point to know that I was the bad guy, I was the villain, that I'm the guy no one would believe… that I was the guy you could send up the river. But honestly, even if I thought they would believe, I wouldn’t have said anything… I was excited to be totally honest.”

Gangle’s eyes went wide in shock at the statement, “W-what?!”

“Oh yeah, I was psyched! Finally, another piece of filth like me! But then you had to go and RUIN IT,” he suddenly shouted before finally reverting to his usual grin (and tone of voice), “by pulling all the baby loser sad girl nonsense, putting on that annoying innocent act,” his voice started turning back into a growl as he continued, “buddying up with that annoying pile of tinker toys you call a friend,” his tone returned to its smug norm, “honestly I would barely even call that thing a person, let alone choose to hang out with it.”

Gangle couldn’t stand to hear him talk about her friend but her attempt to stand up for them was quickly shut down as Jax slammed her head against the back rail of her seat with his own.

“WHO SAID YOU COULD STAND UP?! Anyway, as I was saying,” his flip flopping between violent monster and smug jerk was becoming routine at this point, “you went off and started lying to everyone else about being nice and likeable and good, but I knew the truth. That’s why I’ve been on you all this time…”

“What,” Gangle asked incredulously, “all this is revenge for something I did to you, once?! Years ago?!”

All she got as an answer was laughter as Jax howled in her face, but once he calmed down, he spoke calmly, “Oh this isn’t revenge, I'm going after you because of what you did, yeah, but it ain’t to get back at you or anything stupid like that. I want you,” the words disgusted Gangle, and Jax leaned in closer his face against the side of her face where her ears would be and whispered, “I want everyone to see you for who you really are… a little unlovable monster… just like me, just like you deserve! And then when you have no one, when you’re alone and hated in some dark corner of the circus,” his whisper turned into a disgustingly sensual shuddering breath as he spoke, “I’ll have you all to myself, just like I deserve!”

Gangle felt like she was going to vomit, she wanted to scream, to cry, she was beyond disgusted. But before she could say anything to Jax he suddenly stepped away to the railing he had knocked Zooble over, he pressed down his ears as if he was slicking back hair with his hands as he looked over the railing, “Looks like the rest of the clowns finally noticed something’s up, that’s my cue to leave, sweetheart.”

With no warning, and after blowing a kiss at Gangle, he ran towards the back of the passenger car and leapt over the railing, as if diving into a pool.

Gangle sat in stunned silence until the sudden jolt of the Ferris wheel springing to life jolted her back to awareness, she leaned over the railing to see Jax awkwardly walking away from a pile of mattresses and pillows on the grass behind the ride. As the ride made its full rotation and began lowering her towards the others, the ride stopping right as her car made it to the ground level. She had no other choice but to walk out into the waiting stares of the others.

Before anyone could say anything, Zooble finished putting their last limb back in and started shouting, “WHAT THE F-*shattering*-K WAS THAT?! WHAT, BECAUSE I DIDN’T FALL HEAD OVER HEELS FOR YOUR LOVE CONFESSION THE EXACT WAY YOU WANTED TO, YOU TRY TO KILL ME?!”

“Zooble… please… I- it wasn’t…” was all she could force out between sobs to defend herself.

“WHAT WAS IT THEN, HUH? What, did you “get emotional” and lash out again?!”

“It- it was-”

“GANGLE, I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TRY AND BLAME THIS ON JAX!”

“Wow, gotta admit, it’s refreshing to hear someone yelling my name in my defense for once,” Jax casually said as he subtly limped towards the group, “but for real what’s going on here, crybaby lose her marbles again, like when she tried to kill me last night?”

Zooble looked back and forth between Jax and Gangle before simply saying, “What?”

Gangle did the only thing she felt she could… she ran, ignoring the calls from the others as she ran off as fast as she could. She looked back for only a split second as she reached the gate of the park, seeing the various looks of anger and disappointment on the others faces. And in between all of them was Jax, smiling as hard as he could as everyone else was too focused on her to notice him. And with that last look she turned away and kept running, running and running until she finally made it all the way back to her room, where she found herself barricading the door once more… where she found herself alone and wailing on her bed… once more.

Chapter Text

She didn’t know how long it had been, days? Weeks? Or maybe simply hours. It had been who knows how long of her being locked away, barricaded in her own room out of fear of confronting the others about what had happened at the carnival. She was convinced that no matter what she said it wouldn’t change anything, to them she was crazy, violent and unpredictable. He had taken everything, the trust of the others was stained forever, her own sense of safety had collapsed once more and harder than ever, even her own feelings, her love… stolen and twisted into a perverse obsession like… like his.

Just like you deserve…

His words stained the walls of her mind, one certain word filling every thought.

Deserve.

She didn’t deserve this; she didn’t deserve any of this torture. She didn’t deserve to lose her friends, her love, her peace of mind. There was only one person in this circus who deserved to be ripped apart like she had been, and she knew exactly who it was.

She sat up on her bed and stared around her room, her models were still broken even after all this time, a few errant shreds of paper littered a few hard-to-reach corners, but it was one particular thing that caught her eyes… that took over her thoughts.

That stain… the seemingly endless black pool that covered her floor, the dried remnants of that thick tar that once flooded her nightmares. She hadn’t meant it, it had been a reflex, an act of self defense from a monstrous intruder. He was wrong, she didn’t enjoy hurting him like that even after what he had done, she didn’t mean to go that far.

But that was then and this was now.

And now… all she could think of was what exactly was deserved by who.

She quietly rose from her bed and trudged to clear her desk from her door, peeking out ever so slightly into the hall. That lights were on, and footsteps could be heard muffled down the halls. It was still early morning but the others were already well on their ways to morning table. Breakfast time, right on schedule like the helpless prisoners they were. She was glad, she didn’t want anyone trying to talk to her, she knew what she needed to do and if that momentum was broken…

With a bitter sigh, she stepped out into the hall and began walking down to the main room focusing herself of her own thoughts the whole way, her only walking companion her festering hatred.

“This is what he deserves”

                                                                                                                   “Bastard”

 “Monster”

                                                                     “sicko”

“EVERYTHING IS BECAUSE OF HIM”

                                                                                         “IT’S ALL HIS FAULT”

                                             “ROTTEN PIECE OF TRASH”

“I’M DOING EVERYONE A FAVOR”

Her anger only grew with each step, her mind a whirlwind of bitter words and cruel thoughts.

And yet, her face was still. Calm and emotionless as she finally turned the corner and saw everyone sitting at the table. She too was seen, shock spreading through the table. She paid them no mind as she calmly and quietly stalked up the side of the long table to the head seat, she didn’t return any glances or heed any calls, her mind and sight were both locked on one thing.

The one person who seemed be unaware of her approach.

She kept her eyes on Jax as she walked towards him, her hand casually wrapping around the backrest of one of the dining chairs and dragging it along with her, his eyes were closed and his head was resting on his hand, held up as his elbow lay on the table. She couldn’t hear anything but the muffled scraping of the chair dragging against the thin rug under the dining table, the rest of the world faded from her purview becoming empty darkness around the edges of her vision. It was just her and him, under a spotlight, as she stopped next to him. She turned, a full spin, her other hand gripping the chair as well as she swung around with all her might. Jax opened one eye, finally disturbed enough to wake.

She wasn’t even aware she had started screaming.

A violent crash echoed through the room, compounded with her guttural bitter shriek, as the chair collided with Jax’s back. His upper torso and head were smashed into the table, his plate shattering under his face as the chair rolled across him and the table, twisting Gangle’s arms around each other as it clattered across the dining sets and serving trays that lay in its path sending them crashing across the table and onto the ground around everyone. She still couldn’t hear anything but her own thoughts, her own rage, as she swung the chair back towards the dazed rabbit as he groggily managed to lift his face from the quickly growing black puddle on the table.

Just in time to catch the full force of her second swing with his face.

The impact launched him backwards knocking him and his own chair completely over, the force left him rolling over himself onto his back as Gangle’s chair splintered and came apart, the largely intact backrest slipping from her grasp as her swing hit its apex. The chair’s pieces skidded across the floor into the darkness beyond Gangle’s vision, nothing beyond herself and Jax existed in the moment as far as she was concerned.

“I have HAD IT with you,” Gangle shouted as she stomped towards the supine man, having finally found her voice in the raging storm of her mind, grabbing a splintered half of chair leg from the ground as she did, “YOU SICKO,” she stood over Jax and raised the chair leg, “YOU MONSTER, YOU FREAK!”

She ranted and raved, punctuating her insults with strikes across Jax’s face as the rabbit tried to hold his arms up to defend himself in vain. A black puddle was once more forming on the ground beneath his head as meaty thwacks filled the main hall. Gangle’s perception returned with each strike bit by bit until the chair leg, slick with black, slipped from her grasp on the downswing and flew towards the dining table. With what little she could see beyond herself and Jax she couldn’t help but notice his broken plate…

And the kitchen knife that lay beside it.

 “THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED, RIGHT?” Gangle shouted as she stomped over and snatched up the knife from the table, “you handed me a knife just like this and practically begged me to hurt you, you know, while you were TORTURING ME,” she stalked towards Jax, pointing the knife tip at him as she drew closer, who had curled up into himself facing away from her, “But I'm not just gonna give YOU what you want, I'm gonna give EVERYONE WHAT WE ALL WANT, I’LL KILL YOU AND THEN WHEN YOU COME BACK I’LL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU FINALLY STAY GONE AND WE CAN ALL GO BACK TO LIVING OUR AWFUL LIVES WITH AT LEAST ONE LESS NIGHTMARE TO DEAL WITH DAY AFTER DAY!”

Just before Gangle could reach Jax she felt herself hindered, arms had wrapped around her. In her hateful daze she screamed and flailed the knife from side to side blindly, one such slash finding resistance as she pulled it back from her left side. Suddenly released, she found herself stumbling past Jax and as she turned around to face him, she rapidly became cognizant of the scene she found herself in the center of. There she was, standing with a blade in her hand as Jax lay in a black puddle on the floor, his muffled gasps and sobs the only thing she could hear in the shockingly silent giant room as her mind suddenly found itself deathly quiet, the others staring at her. Ragatha was clutching… her… wrist? Realization poured over Gangle as Ragatha moved her hand revealing a slash down her arm, stuffing popping out from the long gash.

“What?! Wait! No, no, no, no, no, I didn’t-,” Gangle desperately fumbled for the words to explain herself as looks of shock, hurt, and betrayal bore through her being, “This wasn’t how- I’m sorry I- this- this is HIS fault, his… fault…”

Gangle’s ire was unexpectedly tempered as her words fell on deaf ears and her eyes on a whimpering mess. Jax was a pitiful heap on the ground and the looks of all the others as they tended to Ragatha forced doubts into her mind. But none of them hurt more than the look of disgust from Zooble, a silent shout of “what’s happened to you?”

She wanted to explain herself, she wanted to apologize, but Gangle once more found herself awash with blinding rage. Amongst all the chaos her eyes had caught something in their periphery… Jax.

The rabbit lay on the ground curled up defensively in a puddle of black blood and yellow chips of teeth, his back was to everyone except Gangle and through shattered bloody gaps in his mouth and without interrupting his pained groans and gasps he made eye contact with her…

And smiled.

Her breaths became heavy and deep as she failed to keep herself together, his taunts, jeers, and torture flooding back into her mind. She shrieked in rage and leveled the tip of the knife towards Jax as she rushed at him once more, except once again…

*crack*

she heard her mask break before she felt it. Gangle groggily lifted her head off the ground and looked around as much as she could, the knife and the pieces of her mask lay on the ground off to her side, the others were crowded around Jax. Pomni said something to the rest and ran off, presumably to go look for Caine. Behind them all stood Zooble, fist clenched and trembling, their look of disgust having turned to one of pity.

Gangle didn’t know if they would hear her, she could barely even hear herself, but she still needed to say something, “I’m… sorry,” she forcibly mumbled out as she lost consciousness.

Gangle once again found herself laying in her bed unaware of how long it had been since she had passed out. She stayed in bed staring at the ceiling for who knows how long as she desperately ran through her head searching for a way to explain herself, to earn any trust back, but the only conclusion she could come to was a horrifying prospect.

She had done exactly what he wanted.

All this talk of “making them see” and set up after set up of her as the bad guy, leaving her with no alibi or explanation, eroding the trust the others had in her bit by bit. Zooble was just the last part of his plan to push her over the edge, to drive her to do something she couldn’t explain away. Even if she could find the words no one would believe her, he had made sure that no matter how honest she was they would all think she’s either lying or crazy; And all for what, some sick obsession with her, revenge for some shitty thing she did ages prior? She forced herself to stand up and walk to the door having decided it was better to at least try and fail then let everyone think her a remorseless maniac.

Except the door was locked.

Panic filled her head as she twisted and shook the doorknob with all her strength as she found to her horror that the lock was missing from the knob. She was being locked away, imprisoned like the monster everyone now saw her as and there was nothing she could do about it. She stumbled back from the door and flopped backwards onto her bed as a torrent of emotion overtook her, she broke into a wail of despair as tears poured from her face. She rolled onto her stomach and began kicking and punching the bed below her, her sorrow giving way to a rage filled tantrum as a mixture of guilt and hatred overtook her. She ended up slipping off the bed in her throes of emotion leaving her hyperventilating on the ground as one desperately unwanted thought filled her mind, “He won… I have no one to help me anymore… just like he wanted,” she thought to herself. Despite her efforts she couldn’t come to any other conclusion and it left her with the most terrifying feeling she had felt in ages… hopelessness.

As rare as it was she wasn’t a stranger to happiness, especially when she was able to find one of those rare quiet moments in the circus, and as much more common it was she was long used to being scared (she found cold comfort in the familiar anxieties of the circus forever ago) and even if she wasn’t accustomed to acting on those feelings being mad wasn’t something new to her in this nightmare of a simulation, especially towards Jax. But hopelessness was new, or at the very least something she had found ways to push away or ignore and for good reason. Within the circus hopelessness was death… or at least the closest thing to a true death one can suffer from in this wretched digital nightmare. She was used to finding comfort in Ragatha’s kind words, or amusement in Kinger’s unpredictable but harmless personality, she had even begun to find common ground with Pomni in the relatively short time they had known each other. But none of them would help her now, and she would still be fine if it had just been them. But all the peace and happiness Zooble’s quiet presence brought was now gone as well, and even Gangle’s pining thoughts of any possible future they could have were tainted by Jax’s meddling, poisoned by the distrust he had sown between them.

Without them she had no one left, without them… she was going to- “NO!”

“NO, NO, NO, NO,” she sat up on her knees and punched at the ground with each exclamation, “I can’t think like that, if I think like that I'm dead! I just have to… stay alive, they’ll check on me… they’ll let me out and then I can… I’ll figure things out from there.”

She forced herself back into her bed as she choked back her sobs and focused on staying calm, focused on happy memories, anything to push back the hopelessness brewing in the back of her head. She just needed to stay calm until someone came to check on her, then she could explain herself (or at least try) and then she could be let out… that’s all she needed to do.

She couldn’t remember exactly, but her best guess was that she had lost count shortly after the third or so week. But she was certain it had been longer than two months… two months at least of being trapped with nothing but her own thoughts. She had tried to preoccupy herself with her hobbies but her artistic motivation drained quickly in the deafening silence of her solitude and trying to fix her long-broken figures just filled her with bad memories of the day all this horror had started. It wasn’t like she could escape those thoughts even if she wanted to, the large black stain on her floor that she had failed to clean brought them back every time she glanced anywhere in her room but the ceiling. As more and more time went by with no one even knocking on the door she had guessed that maybe it was Caine that was going to check on her at some point, though his inattentiveness towards Kaufmo made that a not so comforting thought, but even he wasn’t this forgetful (or at least she hoped) so she had gone back to her first more depressing thought, that the others were in charge of her release and if that was the case then they had seemingly decided to leave her to rot. Locked away like the monster they thought she had become, or maybe Jax had been whispering more doubts to the others and maybe they had become distrustful of her entirely. Maybe they were convinced she had always been like this, that it was in all their best interests to leave the monster in its cage until it expired out of sight now that they had finally seen it’s true form.

She grew more and more numb with each passing day. Her only reference for time was the fake window in her room and the non-specific movements of the sun and moon backdrop behind it. She had tried to keep up with the others by listening to them through her door but she found little comfort in it, she only ever heard Ragatha and Pomni having a quick chat in the morning anyway. On her more desperate days she thought about calling out to them but she was all too aware of the way things worked in the circus, sound could come into rooms but not go out if the doors were closed. What was once a source of small respite was now just another layer of separation between her and everyone else. Another layer of loneliness.

Time continued to race past her, she had long since lost track of specifics, it felt like years but it could have been less or more time and she had no way of knowing. She lay stagnant in her bed a loose limp coil numb and barely clinging onto consciousness. She had given up on sleeping a while ago having long lost the strength to force her eyes closed long enough to fall into simulated slumber. The window was telling her it was deep into the night when she heard it, a sound that forever ago would have elicited excitement but now barely got her to look down her own face to see the origin of the sound. Someone was opening her door. She had thought she was out of misery to feel, her tears had long dried up, but the silhouette in the doorway brought her somehow lower.

“You’re looking good, sweetheart,” Jax said from the door as he stepped in and closed it behind himself, “I always got a kick out of seeing you miserable, it was downright exciting when you finally got bold enough to get actually mad at me, and when you jumped me at the dining table… I don’t think I’ve ever been more turned on,” he walked to the bed during his rambling and pulled her face towards his as he spoke his lascivious taunt.

Gangle felt desperately sick to her stomach, as well as something she hadn’t felt in so long… anything at all. Hatred in this instance but it was something else other than numb nothingness.

“But this… seeing you laying there like that,” He brought his face even closer to hers, “This is something else entirely and I like it, a lot, but… something feels a little off,” Jax face grew more mischievous before he suddenly brought it down and his hands up, cracking Gangle’s ineffective comedy mask off her face with his forehead. Gangle could only whimper in pain at the sudden sensation, dormant neurons shocked into attention, “There we go, now you’re looking right, babe.”

She could just glare in return at his words.

“Ya’know it is way too easy to convince those AI of things, Caine left checking up on you to bubble and it was no effort at all convincing that floating ball of stupid that it was actually my job instead and that Caine just meant he was supposed to keep the others informed,” his grin grew as he spoke, “I tell him you’re fine and not up to talking, he tells the others the same thing, bing bang boom I let you stew until I think it’s been long enough. Either you end up like this,” he took one hand off her face to gesture towards the rest of her, limp and defenseless, “or you end up as the newest guest in the cellar. I knew you’d be able to hang on just long enough.”

“You don’t know me,” Gangle mumbled out with what little defiance she could muster.

“Ha, it is really funny that you think you have anything you can do here other than what I want you to,” He reached his free hand into his overall pocket and pulled out the key to her door, “I’m happy you’re still relatively sane,” He brought his face right up against hers, his simulated breath hot against her skin and his grin morphed into a hateful scowl, “but even if you are my favorite toy I can always find another if you wont let me play with you, and then what, huh? Bubble keeps telling people you’re okay until oops, she actually abstracted while we weren’t paying attention too bad, SO SAD!”

Gangle flinched in Jax’s grasp as he suddenly shouted in her face, the fear from his vile threat settling in. As much as she hated it, he was right, he held all the power in this situation.

“Don’t hurry your pretty little head too much though,” His wide-eyed glare and unusually neutral expression were at odds with his overly saccharine tone, “I already thought about what we are going to tell all the others, it’s so crazy to think, but it turns out you were just so in denial about your feelings for me that it made you desperate. You jumped into tinker toy’s misshapen arms because it helped you deny what you really felt, after all everyone knows that thing doesn’t like me too much.”

Gangle was stuck between disgust at the horrid fantasy he was spinning in her face and anger at the blatant insults to her best friend

“But color me surprised when bubble came up and said you wanted to talk to me, and while I was obviously still a bit wary considering what happened last time we were in the same room I’m just too nice to outright deny you the chance to explain yourself,” his smug grin had returned as he spun his tale, “and boy was I shocked when you confessed your feelings, but I heard you out and you were so earnest and heartfelt that I couldn’t help but give you a chance to prove yourself.”

“No one would ever believe any of that,” Gangle whispered out.

“Sure, they might be a bit shocked to hear that we literally kissed and made up but if we tell the same story that won’t matter, will it? And if you want out of this room you are going to do exactly that,” his smile dropped for just a second as he spoke his threat, “I do have some more condition on top of that, if I do let you out then I am your priority above anyone else, you can talk to the others but only when I'm around, you do what I want when I want and I don’t want you spending any time around play shapes that you can help, got it, sweety?”

Gangle wanted to scream, to insult him every way she could imagine, to tell him to fuck off and die in a hole and make the world a better place for it, “Okay… I’ll do it,” but she didn’t know if she could survive on her own much longer and anything, even this, was better than dying right?

Jax’s grin stretched farther than she had ever seen, the genuine manic glee in his face left her more scared than anything else she had seen in her entire life in the circus, “That is exactly what I wanted to hear, you are already off to such a wonderful start, I knew you had it in you to be such a good girl.”

His praise filled her with disgust, her visceral nausea only getting worse as he forced her onto her back on the bed and climbed on top of her, laying his full weight on her as he pushed his lips against hers. His desperate affection made her want to vomit.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this, oh but I knew you’d have no chance eventually,” his voice quivered in disturbing joy as he pushed himself harder against her, “Oh I hate to admit it but I needed this so bad, I thought you were adorable the moment I saw you and then I saw you miserable and frightened by everything in the circus and I could barely contain myself. And the things I wished I could have done to myself the night after your little frame job showed me who you really were, and now here you are in my arms just like you belong, mine and mine only,” he forced his face against hers once more kissing and licking all it all over, his ragged panting overpowering anything else Gangle could possibly hear.

Gangle forced her eyes closed, forcing herself to desperately hold onto the hatred and disgust she felt towards Jax to keep herself going. As awful as this was, she wanted to live.

That was all she needed to do, all she wanted to do. Live.

She just needed to live until she could get out of this.

Anything was better than fading away like so many before her…

Right?